By ODUNEWU SEGUN
THE new tariffs approved for electricity consumers across the country will become effective today, 1st of February.
Under the new regime, residential customers (R2 Customers) in Eko and Ikeja electricity distribution areas will no longer pay N750 fixed charges. They will be getting N10 and N8 increase respectively in their energy charges. Similarly, the burden of N800 and N750 fixed charges would be lifted off the shoulder of Kaduna and Benin electricity consumers. They will see an increase of N121.05 and N9.26 respectively in their energy charges.
For residential customer classification (R2) in Abuja Electricity Distribution Company will no longer pay N702 fixed charge every month. Their energy charge will increase by N9.60.
According to the acting Chairman of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, Dr. Anthony Akah, the tariff will enable the power distribution, generation and transmission companies to acquire needed infrastructure.
The NERC boss said the lack of cost-reflective tariffs had hindered the electricity companies from acquiring the necessary infrastructure, adding that with the new tariffs, they would not have any excuse for not delivering on agreements they entered into with the government.
He said the Nigerian power sector reform must provide an appropriate pricing template, which had been lacking, leading to deficiency in revenues from power.
This, he added, necessitated the new Multi-Year Tariff Order to enable the generating, transmission and distribution companies to provide the needed infrastructure for higher generation and supply of electricity to meet the needs of consumers.
Akah said under the new MYTO, all premises must be metered and consumers who subscribe to specific metering models must be supplied meters within 60 days after which they would not be disconnected or charged on estimation if a meter was not supplied.
He also said that a Power Consumer Assistance Fund had been put in place to cater for the electricity needs of the less-privileged in the country, adding that the visit was part of the establishment of a coordinated approach to creating public awareness ahead of the February 1 implementation date of the new MYTO.