The federal government says “poor and vulnerable” Nigerians
will be exempted from electricity tariff increase.
NigerianEye had reported that President Muhammadu Buhari, on
Tuesday, approved the implementation of the proposed cost-reflective energy
tariff for the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI), while residential
areas classified as “poor” will not be affected.
In a statement on Wednesday, James Momoh, chairman of the
Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), confirmed that the new
tariff regime will exempt vulnerable customers consuming 50KW or less.
The NERC chairman added that customers on estimated billing will not also be affected as the president has ordered mass metering of consumers across the country.
“NERC wishes to clarify that tariff reviews going forward
will only follow service-based principles. Under these service-based principles
DisCos will only be able to review tariff rates for customers when they consult
with customers, commit to increasing the number of hours of supply per day and
quality of service,” Momoh said.
“In all cases poor and vulnerable Nigerians will not
experience any increase. In line with these expectations, DisCos are directed
to engage with their customers on a Service Based Tariff structure. Under the
Service Based Tariff Structure, DisCos can only review tariffs for customers
under the following conditions.
“Customers are consulted and communicated a guaranteed level
of electricity service by the DISCOs based on hours of supply; customers are
metered; no estimated billing through the strict enforcement of the capping
regulation.
“This means that unmetered customers will not experience any
cost increase beyond what is chargeable to metered customers in the same area.
Even under the above conditions, there will be no change in tariff for the most
vulnerable as tariffs for those consuming 50KW or less remain frozen.
“Customers receiving less than 12 hours of supply will also
not experience any change in tariffs. In addition, the President has directed
that there should be a nationwide mass-metering program in an effort by the
Federal Government to put a stop to estimated and arbitrary billing for
electricity.”
In January, NERC had announced that there would be an upward
review of electricity tariffs across the country from April 1.
However, it directed electricity distribution companies
(DisCos) to suspend the proposed tariff increase in March as a result of the
COVID-19 pandemic.
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