SAN FRANCISCO, December 21, (THEWILL) –Barely a week after it was asked by the House of Representatives to stop any plans to increase electricity tariffs, the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, NERC, on Monday finally released a new electricity tariff regime indicating various rates of increase in energy charges for consumers across the country.
This was as the commission announced the removal of fixed power charges for all classes of electricity consumers, stressing that power users would henceforth only pay for what they consume.
It would be recalled that the Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola had, about two weeks ago, disclosed that electricity tariffs would increase in the coming days. He then urged consumers to comply with the payment of bills, promising that the sector would record considerable improvement thereafter.
Revealing the tariffs increase on Monday, NERC assured that from the next billing period, power distribution companies would no longer charge their customers monthly fixed charges that requires electricity consumers to pay an approved amount of money not minding whether electricity is consumed during the billing period.
NERC, while outlining the rates of increase in tariffs for various customer classes in selected locations across the country, said, “For instance, 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.
“Also, 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 shoulders of Kaduna and Benin electricity consumers. These consumers will see an increase of N11.05 and N9.26 respectively in their energy charges,” the commission clarified.
