•Battle technical glitch on recaharge

 

By Adewale Sanyaolu

There are palpable fears and anxiety among electricity consumers over the new electricity tariff that ought to have taken effect in July 1 but now delayed under a new Multi Year Tariff Order (MYTO)

This was even as the payment platform for electricity token appears to be down as consumers make attempt to make bulk electricity purchases ahead of the new tariff.

Some consumers at the weekend expressed their frustration to Daily Sun at the weekend that for 4 days they have been unable to recharge.

The Multi-Year Tariff Order (MYTO) is a tariff model for incentive-based regulation that seeks to reward performance above certain benchmarks, reduces technical and non-technical/commercial losses and leads to cost recovery and improved performance standards from all industry operators in the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry.

It is used to set wholesale and retail prices for electricity in the industry by employing a unified way to determine total industry revenue requirement that is tied to measurable performance improvements and standards.

The purpose of    the MYTO is to set cost-reflective tariffs which will allow     the power sector to be properly funded and functional. It provides a 15-year tariff path for the NESI with limited minor reviews each year in the light of changes in a limited number of parameters (such as inflation, interest rates, exchange rates and generation capacity) and major reviews every 5 years, when all of the inputs are reviewed with stakeholders. The last minor MYTO occurred in December 2022.

There have been various public notices from some of the Discos which had stated that the electricity tariff would be raised by about 30 to 40 per cent for selected categories of consumers on July 1, 2023.

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In a public service announcement from the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company, for instance, the Disco had said, “Effective July 1, 2023, please be informed that there will be an upward review to the electricity tariff influenced by the fluctuating exchange rate, a move that was later denied by the Disco.

“Under the MYTO (Multi Year Tariff Order) 2022 guidelines, the previously set exchange rate of N441/$1 may now be revised to approximately N750/$1 which will have an impact on the tariffs associated with your electricity consumption.”

A consumer who identified himself as Mr. Tunji Akintunde, said any attempt by NERC to sanction a hike in electricity tariff will throw more Nigerians below the poverty net because consumers are still battling with the effect of subsidy removal.

For his part, another consumer, Mrs Jane John, said for there to be a tariff hike, NERC should first ensure that all unmetered consumers are adequately metered.

She lamented that a situation whereby consumers are slammed with estimated billing is ungodly and wicked.

Already Nigeria’s  organised labour had last week  kicked against the plan by the Federal government to increase electricity tariff describing it as callous and insensitive to the well-being of consumers, especially the poor Nigerians.

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) in a statement by President, Mr. Joe Ajaero in Abuja said the labour centre does not believe that these figures are a justification for this reckless proposed tariff increase.

The labour centre advised the Federal Government to shelve the plan.

Ajaero said the issue of capacity to pay and quality of service delivery is not only germane but superior to any rationalisation by market logic.