Reps asks NERC, others to halt planned hike on electricity tariff

The House of Representatives has directed the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) to halt the planned increase in electricity tariff.

The directive was given at a public hearing involving relevant stakeholders conducted by the House Committee on Power on Tuesday.

The Chairman of the Committee, Magaji Da’u Aliyu, faulted the NERC and Distribution Companies (DISCOs) over the planned hike saying, proper consultation was not conducted before going public. He said the power sector operators and regulatory agencies would not be allowed to charge Nigerians different tariffs for electricity usage based on locations.

Aliyu insisted that electricity tariffs should be uniform adding that the use of power is the same in all parts of the country.

He said: “It has to be uniform because the poor Nigerian in my village is the same poor Nigerian that is paying power in Nnewi or Ado Ekiti. People will not understand; you have to do a lot of media work for people to understand what you mean.”

“Let me assure you and the minister that we are here to support this government to achieve its objective. We are not against a cost reflective tariff; we are only calling on the government to do the necessary things before this kind of thing is brought out and we have mentioned them.

“If you can see, there are so many unresolved questions; I pity the Discos, there are locations that they cannot even go to collect the tariff. They have a lot of debts, but we have to do it logically to ensure that … I’m sure all we’ll get feedback from Nigerians,” he added.