Consumers Vow To Resist Electricity Tariff Hike
Consumers of Electricity product and other Stakeholders, Thursday vowed to resist implementation of the new power tariff increase announced by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, NERC, Expected to become effective from July 2020.
Describing the proposed tariff hike not justifiable, they, however, promised to mobilise all electricity consumers across the country to apply any measure humanly possible including seeking legal action to stop the hike.
The National President of Association for Public Policy Analysis, APPA, said, Comrade Princewill Okorie lambasted the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, NERC, for taking a unilateral decision on the issue concerning the Nigerian public.
Comrade Okorie argued that the Distribution Companies, DISCOs have not made enough investment to improve on the distribution network infrastructure and therefore there is no justification for a new tariff increase.
According to him, “Why will they be announcing a new tariff without review of the performance of the Electricity Distribution Companies, DISCOs? Is the new tariff taking into cognisance infraction the NERC is supporting? The same people who will pay this new tariff ate the same people being given estimated billings without following estimated billing methodology?
“It is not the same people who are given estimated bill without methodology? So, what is the tariff increase? Are they not already exploiting the people? Before you talk about tariff increase, to be seen as genuine, how much is generated from the estimated billing across the federation?
“The numbers of metered consumers are very few compared to the number of consumers without meter. And can they account for money generated through estimated billings across the country?
“They are just taking advantage of the lack of proper coordination of electricity consumers and they are taking advantage of the people. Each time the DISCOs keep on collecting reconnection fees which are nowhere in the Electricity Act.
“The reconnection fees they collect from the consumer they don’t issue a receipt for it. What is it for? Where does that money go, where did they account for that money? “So, has there being the enumeration of metered and no metered consumers? Was there any enumeration to see the difference between what they take? What is the investment of the DISCOs in the power infrastructure? Okorie noted that “They cannot even provide meter. Electricity consumers are still the ones paying to provide meters, transformers, wire and even the maintenance of transformers.
