Location Within Country: Southern Region

Mail: sellis@snv.org

Completion date (month/year): 15 December 2018

The major objective of the study is to evaluate and determine affordable tariff structure of existing emptying services considering the level of affordability and willingness to pay of the communities.

The specific objectives of the assignment are to:

1. To identify the actual cost of services to service providers;

2. To identify and analyse current cost/tariff structure of existing emptying services;

3. To develop alternative options for tariff structures for the safe emptying services on each cities;

4. To evaluate and determine affordable tariff structure for different levels of the community;

5. To clarify the roles/responsibilities of service providers in sustaining, operating and maintaining the emptying services; 

Step One: Gather information

With an aim to reviewing the tariff structure, collect current tariff plan; measure present and projected operating costs, assets, and investment plans, the demand forecasts (trend analysis) and feedback from consumers on the actual service and price. Consumers’ inputs was collected through F2F, Focus groups discussion, appointment of a consumer representative to the regulatory agency board, or consumers’ associations.

Step Two: Evaluate the effectiveness of the existing tariff structure and the need for reform  

• Assess whether the operator is predicting an excessive level of operating costs and investments and estimate the corrected cost of service, covering all justified costs and accounting for all inefficiencies.
• Evaluate economic efficiency: The volumetric charge should be set in alignment to the short-run marginal costs of bringing an additional unit of service.  
• Calculate the revenue requirements: Revenues from tariffs are generally expected to cover operating and maintenance costs, depreciation and a return on capital 
• Evaluate whether current tariffs are sufficient to cover costs or whether there needs to be an overall tariff increase or decrease in order to move towards cost-covering tariffs. 
• Identify subsidies and evaluate their targeting performance.

Step Three: Publish tariff decisions (allowing for possible appeals on these decisions) 

• Present the results of this evaluation to a broad range of stakeholders so as to build support for reform, with built-in participation mechanisms. 

Step Four: Implement the proposed tariff reforms 

• Identify potential winners and losers from proposed reforms and potentially design compensation or transitional measures (for example, phasing in changes in tariff structure, leaving time for people to adjust their consumption, especially for poor consumers). 
• Monitor the impact of tariff reform over time so as to be able to carry out potential adjustments over time.