ZESA Holdings(Zesa) yesterday announced a surprise 60 percent power tariff cut on one of its bands for domestic electricity usage, the Daily News reports.

Zesa subsidiary, the Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company (ZETDC), said it had reduced the last band of its domestic tariff from $16,50 per unit to $10,39 per unit, inclusive of levies.

The surprising dose of good news for ordinary citizens comes as the country is reeling from intermittent power cuts due to antiquated equipment and reduced imports, mainly from South Africa.

“The Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company would like to advise that it has revised the domestic prepayment tariff structure from a four to six stepped tariff structure, in consultation with stakeholders, to give more customers electricity units and more buying options.

“In order to enable customers to get more electricity units, ZETDC has reduced the last band from $16,50 per unit to $10,39 per unit (inclusive of levies), and restructured its stepped tariff into a six level structure: 0 to 50 kilowatts ($1,73), 51 to 100 kw ($3,46), 101 to 200 kw ($6,06), 201 to 300 kw ($8,66), 301 to 400 kw ($9,96), 401 kw and above ($10,39).

“ZEDTC further advises that customers who bought prepaid electricity tokens on the old stepped tariff structure before this adjustment to six steps will be credited the difference in due course,” ZETDC said

This comes after Zesa last month slapped another 50 percent increase on electricity tariffs, the third such hike in two months — triggering fears that this would have major negative effects on the country’s stabilising economy. Zesa made the increases as it pushed for what it said would be a viable tariff regime which would enable it to pay for its power needs without running the risk of being cut off by its suppliers.

Zesa also claimed that so low were the current tariffs that “it was now cheaper to use electricity than firewood and liquid gas”.

In January this year, the government announced plans to clear its arrears with Mozambique and South Africa  after securing a US$100 million facility from Afreximbank and reviving a 30-year trilateral agreement with the two neighbouring countries as part of short-term solutions to stabilise local power supplies.

The trilateral agreement, which was first signed in 1990, allows Zimbabwe to negotiate for “firm and competitively priced” electricity from Hidroeléctrica de Cahora Bassa (HCB) and Eskom.