Country policies and Electricity charges to household v/s Businesses

[Clueless]

I was randomly looking at energy related prices across various countries, some data that suddenly struck me about was the price of electricity in different countries. Poor countries based on their PPP have cheap electricity no doubt and kinda makes some sense.

The disparity of electricity prices for household and businesses is particularly striking. Almost all poor countries tend to provide cheaper electricity to households and charge substantially higher to businesses. Of course, there are a few exceptions here and there. But overall, I think its a fair hypothesis about populism in poor countries and continuing to hurt development.

 

[daytrader]

I think the opposite can hold true as well. By providing cheaper electricity to households, you make energy more accessible to the general population. Energy is required for decent living conditions - think cooking, access to electronics, heating, cooling etc. It can make the general public more productive which will contribute positively to the economy. Also it's easier to collect bills from a business as you can essentially close them down. Harder to enforce this on individuals in poorer countries where stuff like electricity theft, rolling back meters, paying off the meter reader etc. are common practices.