The Senate unanimously passed a resolution today urging the Nigerian Electric Regulatory Commission, NERC, and electricity distribution companies, DisCos, to suspend the 40 per cent electricity tariff immediately and reverse back to the old template.
The resolution was sequel to a motion moved by Suleiman Nazif (APC, Bauchi).
The Senate also resolved to organize a public hearing on the issue.
Recall that the DisCos had on February 1, 2016 began the implementation of a new electricity tariff, which would see consumers pay 40 per cent more than they are currently being charged.
The development sparked nationwide protests by organized labour, which said the increment was in violation of a subsisting court order.
Reverting to the old tariff template will not relieve poor Nigerians deades-old fraudulent extortion by public power companies via what they call “demand charges” or “fixed charges,” or “MMC” that has been cancelled along with the increment in tariff. Since the power companies regulaly received billions of Naira via “fixed chages” without any energy consumption by the customer, they have lacked necessary incentive to improve their service. Labour and the Senators should not have protested the tariff increment if they took this fact into consideration, unless, their protest, ostensibly presented as favouring the Nigeria energy consumers is a hoasx, designed to perpetuate unrighteous profit for electricity distribution companies. Service desserves pay, depending on mutual agreement. A person or organization that will extort money from customer without service is a thief. A customer who refuses to use exhorbitant service should not be charged. I have not touched the area of fraudulent manipulaton of figures and numbers by power companies to generate untruthful high bills. I have only spoken about PHCN’s LEGAL EXTORTION inherited by present DISCOS.