This means that property owners who were previously not considered for a subsidy because the City deemed them not to be financially vulnerable, will be billed the same.
Currently there are two tariffs, the subsidised Lifeline Tariff and the Domestic Tariff, which apply only to single residential consumers.
The City’s finance mayco member Johan van der Merwe says there is a proposal to introduce a Home User Tariff, effective from 1 July, for customers of properties worth over R1m.
These customers will pay a separate R8.21 daily service charge, irrespective of how much electricity they use. Also, the unit cost for the first 600 units will be lower for them than for customers on the Domestic Tariff — depending on how much electricity is purchased for the property in a given month. Formerly the service charge cost was recouped with the unit price of electricity.
However, both the Domestic and Home User rariffs customers who use more than 600 units per month will have equivalent monthly accounts.