The House of Representatives has asked the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission to suspend the plan to review electricity tariff in June.
It also condemned electricity distribution companies for transferring debts incurred by former occupants of building to the new occupants or tenants.
At the plenary on Thursday, the House adopted a motion moved by Aniekan Umanah titled: ‘Call on the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission to Suspend the Proposed Increase in Electricity Tariff’.
Following the adoption of the motion, the House urged the Federal Government to direct NERC to “rescind the decision to further increase electricity tariff proposed for June 2021 in view of the hard times Nigerian masses are currently going through.”
The House further mandated its committees on Power, Poverty Alleviation, and Labour, Employment and Productivity to ensure compliance with the resolution.
Umanah, while moving the motion, noted that the Electric Power Sector Act of 2005 established the NERC with a mandate to license Discos, determine the operating codes and standards, establish customer rights and obligations and set cost-reflective industry tariffs.
The lawmaker also noted that the Act prescribed its funding from 15 per cent of electricity charges paid by customers to the Discos
He recalled that the NERC, working with the Discos, had increased electricity tariffs five times since 2015, the latest being on January 1, 2021.
Umanah said, “The House is aware that despite those increases, Nigerians have not enjoyed significant improvement in power generation, instead they daily grapple with epileptic services from the Discos and unilateral exploitation in the name of estimated billing arising from non-metering of over 50 per cent of consumers.
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