This comes after the National Assembly leadership’s
intervention at a meeting with the Electricity Distribution Companies (DisCos),
the National Electricity Regulatory Agency (NERC) and others in the power
chain, Monday night, June 29.
The DisCos announced over the weekend that the tariff pushed forward from April 1 would take effect
from July 1.
Customers protested the planned increase but the DisCos
insisted that only a “cost-reflective” tariff could guarantee their survival to
keep the power sector afloat.
At Monday’s meeting, Senate President Ahmad Lawan and House
of Representatives Speaker Femi Gbajabiamila promised to take the DisCos’
request to President Muhammed Buhari and urged them to push the tariff raise
till Aprill 2021.
In a statement, Special Adviser (Media) to the Senate
President, Ola Awoniyi, said the National Assembly leadership was emphatic at
the meeting that the timing of the hike
was wrong.
The statement added that the National Assembly leadership
told the DisCos that they were not opposed to cost reflective tariff for the
power sector to attract the much-needed investment.
The DisCos also admitted that they were not fully prepared
for the planned tariff hike although they desired it.
The statement added that the National Assembly leaders promised
the electricity distributors that
they would meet with President Muhammadu
Buhari on the issue.
The statement said: “The agreement here is that there is not
going to be any increase in tariff on July 1.
“The Senate President and the Speaker are going to take
appropriate action and meet with the President.
“We are in agreement here that there is no question on the
justification of the increase but the time is simply not right and appropriate
measures need to be put in place.
“So, between now and the first quarter of next year, our
task will be to work together with you to ensure that we put those blocks in
place to support the eventual increase in tariffs.”
The statement quoted Lawan as saying that the government had been doing a lot as part of its obligation to
provide some forms of Intervention.
He said: “I’m quite aware that for this year, probably
starting from last year, over N600 billion was earmarked for this sector to
improve.
“The potential increase in the tariff is definitely
something that will be of concern to us in the National Assembly.
“There is too much stress in the lives of Nigerians today
and indeed across the world because of the challenges imposed by COVID-19
pandemic and even before then, we had issues that would always make it tough
for our people to effectively pay the tariff.
“One way or the other, for this business to flourish, for
this sector to be appropriately fixed, for it to attract investment, something
has to give way, there is no doubt about that but it is also crucial that we
look at the timing for any of our actions.”
According to the statement, Gbajabiamila said the National
Assembly was on the same page with the DisCos on the issue of cost reflective
tariff.
Gbajabiamila added: “There is time for everything. A
well-intended programme or policy of government can fall flat on the face and
never recover if you do it at a wrong time.
“Whatever will affect this government is something that
should concern all of us. I think this will affect this government.
“The timing. I think it will affect the Muhammadu
Buhari government and if it is going to
affect his government, we should all rally around our people, our President and
the government to make sure we do the right thing,
“The good thing is that we have agreed that we need to do
something about the cost of electricity.”
The representatives of the DisCos said the government should be ready to continue to bear the difference
in the present tariff and what was considered as the appropriate tariff.
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