HIKES: FG provides palliatives for electricity consumers, none for fuel

As the federal government and the organise labour continue negotiation of the hikes in prices of petrol and electricity, the  two-week stay on implementation has been extended, and more concessions haves now been reached.

James Momoh, Chairman, Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) confirmed the tariff hike suspension will extend to the third week to enable  the Technical Committee on Electricity Tariff submitted its interim report and review it.

Chris Ngige, Minister of Labour and Employment, said that adoption of the work plan to effect the resolutions has been reached, and will be implemented by all stakeholders on Sunday, October 18.

According to him,  the government will be using the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI) VAT proceeds to provide relief in electricity tariff.

“This is to leverage on the VAT from the NESI. The increases experienced by customers due to the transition to the Service Based Tariff will be reduced. Band A – 10 percent reduction; Band B – 10.5 percent reduction; and Band C – 31 percent reduction.”

The National Mass Metering Programme (NMMP) will also be taken more seriously.

The Nigerian Labour Congress, the Trade Union Congress and CSOs protested the hikes in the prices of those utilities weeks ago, prompting the federal government to reconsider its decision and provide reliefs for Nigerians, especially in the area of electricity.

The fuel hike, which was a fall out of total removal of subsidy, seems to have reached its own final conclusion as none of the on-going negotiations addresses the problem.