Senate at its plenary on Thursday abruptly suspended deliberation on report of planned hike in electricity tariff presented by the Committee on Power.
Debates on the report presented by the chairman of committee, Senator Enyinayya Abaribe (Abia South) titled “Planned Hike in Electricity Tariff and the need to halt the proposed increase by Distribution Companies” received overwhelming support of senators who took turns to express their disapproval of the hike.
Abaribe said the Committee after exhaustive deliberations of the observations and findings from a public hearing held on the issue recommended that:
“NERC suspends the ongoing implementation of MYTO, 2024 which approved over 200% upward review of the previous tariffs from N68/kWh to N225/kWh to allow for robust consultation with customers on the various bands on the cost of service instead of heavy reliance on feeder location and duration of service which are difficult to determine and monitor.
“NERC should ensure full compliance with the mandatory requirement of stakeholder consultation under Section 48 of the Electricity Act, 2023 regarding future regulatory decisions to avoid a repeat of the confusion and public outcry that trailed the recent tariff increase.
“The Ministry of Power and NERC should in the meantime adopt measures to address the problem of power scarcity holistically rather than its preoccupation with price manipulation which has proven to be counterproductive.
“NERC should hold the DISCOs accountable on Key performance Indicators (KPIs) including failure to deliver on CAPEX and OPEX allocations, customer metering obligation under the Electricity Act, 2023, essential customer service obligations including customer sensitization, implementation of energy credits for customers who invested in transformers meters and other assets on the DISCO networks.
“Rate designs should only be cost-reflective if proper account is taken of the relevant macroeconomic environment that determine the affordability of electricity to the different segments of the market.
“The Federal Government metering intervention should be encouraged and intensified to address current metering gap of 6.3 million and this must be pursued by the FGN without prejudice to the statutory obligation of DISCOS to meter their customers as provided under Section 68(1)(b) of the Electricity Act, 2023. In this regard, Mr. President should be commended for the introduction of the Presidential Metering Initiative.
“The Federal Ministry of Power should be advised to intensify efforts towards honouring the subsisting contract with Ziklagsis Networks Ltd (ZNL) for the manufacture, supply, installation, management and maintenance of Pre-Paid Meters (PPMs) in Nigeria including the recent Tripartite Metering Project Consortium Agreement between ZNL and De-Haryor Global Services Limited and the Nigerian Army dated 7th September, 2023 which was signed by ZNL for the metering of Army Barracks and other Military Facilities or in the alternative refund the initial funding to the Federal Government.
“Vigorous implementation of power decentralization provided for under the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (As Amended) and the Electricity Act, 2023 to relieve the Federal Government of the pressure to electrify every nook and cranny of this country should be encouraged.
“The Ministry of Power should establish Electricity Consumer Protection (ECP) Unit to develop, implement and enforce Electricity Consumer Protection component of the Electricity Act, 2023. 34(2)(c) and 119 (1)(f)”.
In his contribution, Senate Minority Leader, Abba Moro (Benue South) said the report was in the interest of ordinary Nigerians who witness power outage 10 times in one minute”, adding that “this arbitrary hike should not see the light of day.
Senator Adams Aliero (Kebbi Central)said the hike should be halted because customers were not consulted. “There are increases in many other areas. Some manufacturers are closing shops because they can’t pay the tariff”.
In his part, Senator Yahaya Abdullahi, former Senate Leader, said there is a lot of waste on the huge amount of money spent on the power sector and advised that the power sector should be looked at holistically.
Senate Chief Whip, Ali Ndume said sudden hike was against the provision of section 42 of the Constitution which says that Nigerians should not be subjected to discrimination.
He said categorizing Nigerian electricity consumers into Band A, B,C D,E, with some having power for 20 hours while others will not have at all amounts to discrimination, adding that “discriminatory power supply is unacceptable”.
However, the robust debate on the report was rudely interrupted by Senator Titus Zam (Benue North West) , Chairman Senate Committee on Rules and Business informed the upper chamber that the Federal High Court (FHC) in Kano has ordered Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) implementation of the tariff hike pending the determination of a suit brought before it on the matter.
Senator Jimoh Ibrahim (Ondo South) while supporting Zam said the Senate should not be in a hurry to discuss the matter since the red chamber has a life span of 3 more years.
He observed that less than 1/5 of the senators were in the chamber at the time, adding that to continue to debate a matter of great importance to the nation with such few members present was not correct in addition to the fact that the matter pending in a court makes further debate on the matter subjudice.
Deputy Senate President, Barau Jibrin who presided at Thursday plenary said there was need to look at both side of the issue.
He said “since the issue was raised by chairman of Rules and Business, let us step it down to consult our legal department”. He therefore stepped it down for further consultation.
The Senate the stepped down all other items on the Order Paper and adjourned to Tuesday May 21, 2024.
By Haruna Salami
The post Electricity tariff hike: Senate suspends discussion of report over court ruling appeared first on Newsdiaryonline.
