If electricity utility Eskom gets its proposed tariff hike of 35% each year for three years, about 500 000 jobs will be lost, the SA Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Sacci) said in Midrand on Thursday.

Spokeswoman Peggy Drodskie told a public hearing of the National Energy Regulator of SA (Nersa) on the proposed hike that inflation would increase by about 0,3%.

"This would then put inflation outside the SA Reserve Bank's target range of between three and six percent," she said.

Drodskie said that both personal disposable income and household consumption would be reduced as a result of the proposed hike. "SACCI estimates that the overall loss to GDP would be about R200-million on the most conservative basis."

She went on to recommend that provisions in the National Energy Policy be implemented with the introduction of private participation in generation being fast tracked.

"SACCI recommends that Eskom be granted an inflation related increase for the period 2010/11, and that this period be used to develop a strategy that will provide South Africa with a sustainable electricity supply at a reasonable tariff."

Drodskie said Sacci had already commenced a process whereby stakeholders would be involved and had convened a colloquium that would take place in Johannesburg on February 2.

"An invitation has been issued to the public to attend the event where stakeholder perspectives will be presented for further interrogation towards the development of the strategy," she said.