NERC insists Electricity tariff increment must be carried out, but….

NERC insists Electricity tariff increment must be carried out, but….
January 07 02:26 2020 Print This Article

The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), has said that the impending review of electricity tariff is a statutory arrangement enshrined in the Multi Year Tariff Order (MYTO) that must be carried out bi-annually but insists no such tariff increment has been implemented.

Declaring this to journalists on Monday during a pre-conference press conference on the 11th edition of the International Conference on Energy, Power Systems Operations and Planning (ICEPSOP), the NERC Chairman, Prof. James Momoh unequivocally reacted to the controversies the Multi-Year Tariff (MYTO) dated 31st December, 2019 has generated.

According to him, he said there is no immediate increase in tariff for customers as widely reported by both the Conventional, New Media and criticisms across social media among others in the last 48 hours.

The NERC boss insisted that the review was the main mandate that the commission statutorily carries out every six months, which he said would not have been carried out without due consultations with concerned stakeholders.

Momoh speaks:

“Let me just say it in three bullets”

“There is no immediate increase in tariff”

“The proposed tariff review is what we are mandated to do as a regulator. We have been doing it twice a year, we did the first one around June, January is here thank God.

“We have no option than to do our jobs. We have done the review and it is subject to public consultation.

“In the next three months, we will engage you and other stakeholders for consultations.

“We have done the review and given the report card of what we saw based on all indices for doing the review, we have not said it is binding tomorrow morning.

“We said we are going to the second thing, which is consultation.

“The order is simply a communication of what we have done as a regulator looking at what it takes to increase or decrease tariff.

“If at the end of our meeting back and forth, we say increase there is increase. If we say no increase, no increase.

“If it is going to be an increase, it is going to be based on our engagement at the public forum.

“We are going to issue a press statement for one more time, putting the document you all read over the weekend in the order, in my layman language.

“That is the one you will all work on. No increase in tariff. We are not leaving any stone unturned.

“We don’t want any increase without negotiations”

“I am a customer too. As customers, we will pay our bills. But if we suddenly change it, we will need to know why. It must be for the good of everybody. Don’t forget, service must improve.” Momoh stressed.

Corroborating Momoh, Prof. Frank Nwoye Okafor is the Commissioner, Engineering Performance and Monitoring, NERC; he submittedthat the review in question not necessarily translate to increase in tariff. He expatiates the nitty-gritty behind the MYTO review exercise.

Hear him: ” Tariff Review is statutory and enforced

“Increases in Tariff is different from Review

“We must look at tariff  vis-à-vis the change in micro-economic values and variables which has to do with inflation rates among other things

“What review does is that both the DISCOs and the GENCO will come to know what cost-effective and what the DISCOs remit to the line and how  much intervention would be required

“So increases in tariff is different from a review

“Review is an internal process between the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI) and the regulator, which is NERC

“Tariff review is statutory and not tantamount to the tariff increase, which must involve consultations before it is done

“It is purely an internal affair, don’t give it leg and foot” Okafor added.

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