Electricity consumers in the country may have to pay more from January as the Federal Government is considering a new ‘supplementary’ tariff hike.
Multiple sources at the Nigerian Electricity Regulating Commission (NERC) said at the weekend that the implementation of the supplementary tariff, if ratified, would be reflected in the January bill, to be distributed to customers in February 2015.
NERC commissioner, Dr. Abba Ibrahim, had earlier hinted on the tariff hike on the sideline of a forum in Lagos, saying it is meant to cushion the effects of naira devaluation and the falling crude oil prices in the global market.
The supplementary tariff is to reflect inflation caused by a major change in foreign exchange rate and major changes in oil and gas prices.
Already, our correspondent gathered that talks had begun with new assets owners, who have been pushing for the supplementary hike.
“They (new assets owners) are of the belief that the devaluation of the naira and the falling crude oil prices are two major elements that have caused inflation, which has direct and indirect effects on their businesses.
“The foreign exchange rate plays a vital role in the newly privatised electricity industry and anytime the naira is devalued, it reflects on the budget, revenue target and profit margins of the companies.
“Also, the falling prices of oil at the international market affect one way or the other, the willingness to produce and supply gas to the power generation.
“I can tell you that moves are being made to get approval for the tariff to reflect differentials in the naira devaluation and that of the oil prices, which became frightening in November.
“By January, this may reflect on bills if approval is made, or better still, the Multi-year Tarrif Order (MYTO) may be fasttracked to accommodate this,” one of the sources said.
Meanwhile, the NERC boss has said it is becoming more expedient for distribution companies to key into the credited advance payment for metering implementation (CAPMI) scheme to ensure that customers are not cheated.
“Our commitment at NERC is to ensure that we use this medium to get complaints from consumers as we did today and to get feedback from distribution companies on strategies employed for the implementation of CAPMI.
“Here, we discovered that the Eko Electricity Distribution Company, which employed the CAPMI has been able to connect over 16, 000 customers while the Ikeja EDC connected about 4, 000 because it is yet to adopt CAPMI.
“We are told that they will present their strategy next year and we hope that this will propel them to do as much as Eko EDC,” Ibrahim had told reporters.
Executive Secretary, Nigerian Metres Association, Muyideen Ibrahem, who said over two million pre-paid metres were lying fallow in the warehouses of manufacturers, called on NERC to prevail on the distribution companies to patronise them.
He said: “I want to appeal to Ikeja DISCO to patronise Nigerian local manufacturers. We have over two million pre-paid metres in our warehouses.
“NERC should kindly prevail on the DISCOs to patronise local manufacturers of metres, our businesses are folding up, our products have international standard and we keep wondering why we should have them in our warehouses while customers keep complaining of crazy billing resulting from unavailability of metres,” he said.
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