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The federal government has exempted poor and vulnerable Nigerians from the increased electricity tariff.
This was disclosed by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), in a tweet on its official Twitter handle on Wednesday.
The tweet signed by James Momoh, Chairman of NERC, said the new tariff will exclude vulnerable customers consuming 50KW or less.
The clarification comes after President Muhammadu Buhari had approved the implementation of the proposed electricity tariff hike but the commission has been quick to add that residential poor households will not be affected.
Momoh equally noted that unmetered customers will not be affected as the president has directed mass meting of consumers to avert estimated billing.
The statement read, “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.”
Recall that NERC had in March suspended an April 1 kick off date for implementation of proposed electricity tariff hike. The suspension was occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Source: Cable
This post was written by Obiajulu Joel Nwolu.
The views expressed here belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect our views and opinions.