By Aminu Imam
The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) and the Minister of Power, Professor Barth Nnaji have expressed divergent views on the proposed increase in electricity tariff this year.
Whereas the NERC, through its Chairman, Dr. Sam Amadi, while clarifying during a media chat in Abuja yesterday said the tariff hike was actually 11%, the Minister had on Monday told the Senate Committee on Power saying that the tariff hike was around 51% while responding to the allegations surrounding the proposed hike.
The NERC boss had debunked last week media reports claiming that all electricity consumers would get a tariff increase on April 1"by almost double’’ as not factual, saying it is billed to commence in May “to allow for more improvements in power supply and greater public enlightenment on the ongoing reform of the power sector”.
He noted that the new tariff was originally scheduled to start on January 1 as provided in the Multi Year Tariff Order (MYTO), which came into effect five years ago.
“In fact, the urban poor and rural dwellers as well as artisans like welders who perform vital economic functions will experience no significant adjustment.
He said that a substantial percentage of people living in towns and cities would not pay much higher because they are “among beneficiaries of the Federal Government’s N60 billion subsidy this year and the N50 billion subsidy next year”.
The NERC chairman rejected suggestions that the planned introduction of different tariffs across the country would be abused by some wealthy people claiming to be poor so that they could pay less bills.
“The tariff will be determined by the wattage consumed by each customer.”
He explained that “those who consume less than 50watts a month are considered less privileged and are known as R (Residential) One customers. We have 14 classes of consumers”.
He said NERC, in order to balance the competing interest between electricity producers and consumers, addresses consumer’s complaint such as installation of the wrong kind of meter indiscriminate charges/billing, recurrent hike in electricity tariff and complains by tenants on how estate developers are charging them exorbitantly.
He also shed light on issue concerning electricity distribution arrangement, rights and obligation of consumer and service providers, standard and procedures of consumer complain handling, electricity tariff design, electricity metering as well as renewable energy and energy efficiency in estate development in the country.
NERC also promise to protect consumer’s right even in the case of conflict of interest whereby producers want to gain more in electricity supply and consumer wanting a reduced tariff as well as monitoring that consumers are not given inflated bill as well as ensuring that that are given their money worth in service delivery will ensure its implementation.
With this initiative, he said, the power sector will move forward and there will be power generation that will meet the demands of consumers in the next few years.
It could be recalled that Financial Times of London last week first reported that electricity tariffs in the country will increase in April by up to 88 per cent under reforms designed to revive the power sector and attract outside investors, saying that the proposed new rates will be announced in the coming weeks, ahead of the privatisation of 18 state-run power generation, distribution and transmission companies later this year.
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