Nigeria Consumer Protection Network (NCPN) has condemned the planned review of electricity tariff by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) slated for July, describing the move as “ill-advised, anti-people and unacceptable.”
NERC said on Monday that it was concluding the Extraordinary Tariff Review process for the 11 Electricity Distribution Companies (DisCos).
The commission said it would also commence the processes for the July 2021 Minor Review of the Multi-Year Tariff Order (MYTO-2020), which is done every six months.
It hinged it’s proposed tariff review on changes in inflation, foreign exchange, gas prices, available generation capacity and capital expenditure.
NCPN’s letter, addressed to the NERC chairman Sanusi Garba, was titled, “Consumers reject tariff increase.”
NCPN President Kunle Kola Olubiyo said it was wrong for the commission to have ignored the impact of a major tariff increase with debilitating consequences on consumers in January 2021 before proposing another one a few months after.
He said the present move is an elitist conspiracy and a calculated attempt to give President Muhammadu Buhari’s government a bad name, adding that the trajectory amounts to economic strangulation of the nation’s economy and that of the citizenry.
He said the input used in arriving at the present electricity tariff was fraudulent, padded, over bloated , self centered and skewed in favour of the energy cartel and a declaration of economic war on the poor masses.
NCPN called on the federal government to review the mid-term review of the power sector privatization ‘hurriedly’ put together in 2013, while also calling on the government to close the gaps between official exchange rates and the parallel market resulting in huge debt burden and needless market shortfalls.
He also urged the government to address the over bloated cost of gas since it accounted for 85% of Total Daily Grid Sourced Electricity in Nigeria.
He equally called for review of all vesting contracts, novate power purchase agreements, gas supply agreement, break the monopoly distribution licences, unbundle Transmission Company of Nigeria [TCN] into technical, commercial and operational, amongst others suggestions.
