Governance activist Bonny Tembo says there is no way the company can be thinking of adjusting the tariffs when it is not showing any signs of improvement.

Mr. Tembo tells QFM that ZESCO should only think of adjusting its tariffs once the problem of load shedding is sorted out because it is negatively impacting on the poor, especially those in the townships.

And Mr. Tembo has appealed to the Energy Regulation Board to put the interest of poor people first and compel ZESCO to stop the unnecessary load shedding.

Zesco has re-applied to the Energy Regulation Board (ERB) for an upward adjustment by November this year to enable it to collect adequate financial resources to maintain infrastructure.

If approved, metered residential tariffs with consumption of 100 to 300 kilowatts (KW) per hour will increase to K343.46 from K250.70 while consumption above 301KW will increase to K559.81 from K408.62 with fixed monthly charges increasing to over K20, 000 from the current K14, 629.

Prepaid energy charges will increase to K381 from K278.