The Eastern Province Chamber of Commerce and Industry EPCCI has disagreed with ZESCO’s decision to hike electricity tariffs.
EPCCI Chief Executive Officer, Josephine Chirwa says that the time for increasing the tariffs is wrong because the Zambian Kwacha is not performing well against other convertible currencies.
Mrs. Chirwa told Breeze Business News that prices of commodities have already gone up and that the hike in electricity tariffs should have been delayed.
She explained that the cost of doing business has also gone up and that this would be an additional cost for those running businesses.
And Mrs. Chirwa has doubted the explanation from government that low copper prices are to blame for the weak Kwacha.
She says that currencies for many other countries, which produce and export copper, have not weakened the way the Zambian kwacha has depreciated, becoming the waste performing currency in Africa.
Meanwhile the Zambian Kwacha has registered a slight appreciation against other convertible currencies.
A check by Breeze Business News in banks in Chipata, found that the Kwacha, which was trading at 7 Kwacha 05 Ngwee is now trading at 6 Kwacha 80 ngwee against the United States dollar.