The public outcry against the plans by power distribution companies
to increase electricity tariffs may have forced some of them to effect
corrections to the proposals they submitted to the Nigerian Electricity
Regulatory Commission.
According to NERC, some Discos are providing clarifications sought by
the commission’s technical team that is currently working on their
applications, and they are making some adjustments to the proposed
tariffs.
Last week, The PUNCH exclusively reported that the Discos
were seeking an average of 49.4 per cent rise in electricity tariffs for
residential consumers, 21 per cent average increase for commercial
customers and 30 per cent average rise in tariff for industrial
consumers.
Bloomberg also reported last week that NERC had concluded
plans to hike the tariffs by five to 40 per cent, depending on the
consumer class and the Discos by mid-November.
But NERC, in a statement in Abuja, stated that it was still reviewing
the tariff applications by the Discos, even as consumers criticised
plans by the distribution companies to hike the rates.
The Assistant National Secretary, National Electricity Consumers
Advocacy Network, Mr. Obong Eko, told our correspondent that Nigerians
were largely against the plans to hike the tariffs.
Eko vowed that NECAN would resist attempts to impose increased
electricity rates on consumers as this would adversely affect the
business operations, particularly those in the Micro, Small and Medium
Enterprises cadre.
NERC said in the statement that it was also reviewing the outcome of
public consultations that it conducted with power consumers and the
Discos.
It stated that it was preposterous to speculate on the range of increase or the tendency in electricity tariff at this stage.
The Chairman, NERC, Dr. Sam Amadi, was quoted as saying, “It is at
the end of the ongoing review exercise to be concluded in a few weeks’
time that the percentages of increase or decrease will be clearer to
anyone.
“The final figure is not clear to anyone as some of the Discos are
still providing clarifications sought by the commission’s technical team
working on their applications. Some of them are also making corrections
to their applications on the basis of those clarifications.”
He explained further that the process of reviewing the applications was painstaking and thorough.
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