The Chamber of Electrical Engineers issued a statement on EMRA’s 38 percent increase in electricity rates.
The statement said there had been no significant increase in energy production costs and noted that the increase was due to a 58.9 percent hike in distribution tariffs, for which the responsibility lay with the power distribution companies.
In a statement, the Energy Market Regulatory Agency (EPDK) said that new electricity tariffs, which will come into effect from July 1, 2024, will see a 38% increase in tariffs for residential buildings with low consumption. “Due to the increase in energy production costs, the final retail sales price of electricity has increased by 38% for the residential subscriber group, 30% for the agricultural activity subscriber group, 38% for the low-level subscriber group of the public and private service sector and 20% for the high-level,” it noted.
Distribution costs are increasing
The statement stressed that the fact that energy costs, which should be the most important item of the bill, fall far short of distribution costs, reveals that the market structure is distorted. “The expression ‘increase in energy production costs’ used by EMRA in the statement is clearly a manipulative attempt to provide a logical justification for the increase. It is a well-known fact that there is no significant increase in energy production costs. The PTF/SMF chart for the last 12 months below, taken from the official EPİAŞ bulletin, confirms this fact. The fact that distribution fees have already been increased by 58.9% shows that this increase is due to distribution fees. In other words, the fact that a unit of electricity supplied for less than 50 kurş can be supplied to consumers for only 1.36 TL does not fit into any economic reality. “
“Privatization is expensive.”
The statement noted that electricity distribution companies have a responsibility to provide high-quality, safe, continuous and affordable electricity energy to the public, and said, “The point we have reached today shows that the electricity distribution services run by the private sector are in some sense not being run well. This puts the economy in a difficult position. It was emphasized that the privatization of publicly-run services, in addition to generating exorbitant costs, is resulting in an endless transfer of public resources to the private sector.
“Expropriation should be on the agenda.”
The statement stressed that access to cheap, high-quality and reliable energy is a fundamental right for all citizens. “The Turkish situation, where resources are being transferred to distribution companies in order to facilitate the payment of foreign currency-linked loans as privatization costs, should now be left behind. With the understanding of the people. It is possible and necessary to create an autonomous structure in the energy sector that can determine tariffs in a way that supports the general economy and the productive sector in particular, away from commercial and political interests. The expropriation of privatized production facilities and distribution territories should be on the agenda immediately to ensure security of supply and reduce total costs. No more time should be wasted on limiting the impact of energy costs on inflation. A vertically integrated public monopoly that manages the entire process from production to distribution should be re-established. “In the transitional period, instead of transferring public resources to the private sector with uncertain outcomes, a Directorate General for Expropriation Management should be established to carry out expropriation procedures.”
