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From Fred Itua, Abuja
The Senate on Wednesday told the Federal Government to halt any plans to increase electricity tariffs in the country.
It said it is ill-timed and must be stopped in view of the economic hardship faced by Nigerians which largely arose from fuel subsidy removal.
The upper legislative chamber, therefore, admonished the Federal Government that rather than increase electricity tariffs, it should focus on electricity generation and distribution.
The Senate also resolved to investigate the over N2 trillion -the Minister of Power, Bayo Adelabu said was required for electricity tariff to avoid the repeat of fuel subsidy scandal.
It also mandated its committee on Power to investigate the operations of DISCOs to ascertain the current status of metering and their extent of compliance with relevant legal and regulatory frameworks in service delivery, as well as to direct the NERC to furnish the Committee with any relevant documents on metering of electricity consumers, post privatisation requirements for the operation of DISCOs and evidence of regulatory actions taken to ensure statutory compliance by DISCOs.
Senate’s resolutions were sequel to a motion titled, “Planned Increase in Electricity tariff and arbitrary billing of unmetered customers by distribution companies (DISCOS), sponsored by Aminu Iya Abbas, and co-sponsored by 10 others.
Presenting the motion, Abbas said: “The Senate notes with greatest dismay the plan to increase electricity tariff by the relevant statutory authority in gross disregard of increased economic challenges with attendant widespread poverty and high cost of living.
“The senate may note that the Hon. Minister of Power was reported saying “the nation must begin to move towards a cost-effective tariff model, as the country is currently indebted to the tune of 1.3 trillion naira to generating companies (GenCos) and 1.3 billion dollars owed gas companies. According to him, over N2 trillion needed for subsidy, only N450 billion was budgeted this year.
“The Senate may further note that the same electricity businesses are collecting money from customers for services not rendered. When they have not added anything to the equipment, they inherited from PHCN. Communities buy transformers to replace damaged ones in addition to over burden bills and arbitrary estimates for unmetered customers.
“Recall that this Senate via a motion last year ,called on the Federal Government and NERC not to increase tariff on electricity for customers and citizens of this country at that time , which still tallies with realities on ground today.”
In his contribution, Aminu Tambuwal, while cautioning the Federal Government, asked it to jettison the idea especially at a time when citizens are still grappling with the economic hardship brought on them by the removal of fuel subsidy.
Also contributing to the motion, the Senate Minority Leader, Abba Moro, said that Nigeria must first be sufficient in generation and distribution of power before considering an increase in tariff.
On his part, Orji Kalu, noted that even advanced economies subsidise electricity.
He said the focus of government should be on distribution. “Why should people be paying for what they did not use. Our ficus should be on transmission and distribution,” he said.
In his remark, President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio, who agreed with his colleagues, noted that any increase will further throw Nigerians into untold hardship especially now that they are grappling with hunger and high cost of living.
