Cape Town is eyeing a 35.9 percent hike in its electricity price – not all of it due to the increases granted to Eskom, the city administration said on Tuesday.

It said the city council would meet on Wednesday "to consider the proposed electricity increase of 35.9 percent to balance its books".

The National Electricity Regulator earlier this month approved a 13.3 percent increase for Eskom, which supplies the city, on top of 14.2 percent approved in December – a total of 27.5 percent.

The city said the new tariff Eskom was announced last week, after the city annual budget was approved at the end of May.

"This 27.5 percent increase will be recovered from municipalities over nine months instead of 12 months," said Clive Justus, mayoral committee member for utility services.

He said the city would ask the regulator to allow it an increase slightly higher than the proposed 32.6 percent for local authorities so that it could fill urgently required additional posts and cater for increased system maintenance costs.

The free basic supply of electricity remained unchanged.

The recent increase granted to Eskom meant Cape Town would have to fork out a further R400-million to the utility.

Sapa