Nigerians should prepare to start paying higher electricity tariff from the second quarter of this year as plans have been concluded to raise the current rate between April and June.
Though a formal announcement of the new tariff is expected to be made next month, the implementation, according to the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, will, however, not be immediate.
The Chairman, NERC, Mr. Sam Amadi, who spoke to our correspondent on the telephone, said, “Next month, we may announce the new electricity tariff; but it may take effect by April, May or June.”
The board of NERC is, however, meeting today to discuss the proposed new electricity tariff with the intention of fixing the exact date for the announcement and implementation of the new tariff regime.
Amadi had told our correspondent earlier that the new tariff had not been announced because of some delays and that the commission was working hard to ensure that customer issues that might likely arise in the future were properly addressed.
“The board will be meeting on Thursday. This is to determine the best time to announce and to start the implementation of the new tariff. From all indications, we may announce the tariff in February,” he had said.
The new tariff was initially scheduled to take effect on January 1, 2012 to coincide with the plans by the Federal Government to sell the power generation, distribution and transmission firms unbundled from the Power Holding Company of Nigeria.
However, the plan ran into a hitch and the privatisation timetable was adjusted with the sales process expected to be concluded in the second quarter of this year instead.
According to the NERC boss, the implementation of the new tariff will not take effect immediately after the announcement of the new structure.
The increase in tariff, Amadi disclosed, would not be 100 per cent across the board, as many factors would be put into consideration in determining the new prices for electricity consumption.
The increase, he explained, would be based on factors like the capacities of the different power distribution companies, various categories of customers on board, cost of service to customers, location, cost of producing power vis-Ã -vis the area, and the number of customers per location.
Amadi said in a bid to holistically address likely customer issues that might arise after the upward review of tariffs, there would be a final opportunity for customers to meet with NERC in a forum.
He said the commission had in the past organised several forums in this regard for electricity consumers.
Amadi stated that NERC had concluded meetings with other stakeholders in the business and would go ahead to announce and implement the new tariff regime when customer matters were satisfactorily addressed.
“Right now, we are putting final touches to the document,” he told our correspondent.
The tariff review is part of the ongoing reforms in the power sector.
The NERC Multi-Year-Tariff-Order is aimed at gradually increasing electricity tariff to attract private investors. The commission had planned to release the new tariff for all categories of electricity consumers in November 2011, but had to delay the announcement to make room for wide consultation with relevant stakeholders.
It had informed the chief executive officers of the electricity distribution companies that the last schedule of the 2008-2013 MYTO became operational from July 1, 2011. The development led to a marginal increase in the average price for a kilowatt hour of electricity from N8.50 to N10.00.
no palliatives
ReplyDeleteIt is easy to increase tariffs with your stone age meters installed to meek the public. where are the prepaid meters? Are they to be enjoyed only by those in the megger cities while those in the villages continue to remain at the mercies of their outdated meters. Please, and Please make prepaid meters available to us in the villages.
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