The Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) has explained that residential consumers will not benefit from the recent reduction in electricity which was occasioned by the removal of the collection loss charge factored into the Multi-Year Tariff Order (MYTO 2.1) that came in effect on January, 1, 2015.
The NERC explained that because the tariff increase for residential customers, most of whom fall under the R1 and R2 categories, was frozen till June when the MYTO 2.1 was announced, consumers in that class would not enjoy the latest reduction which decreased electricity tariff by 50 per cent on the average.
The chairman of the commission, Dr Sam Amadi, who clarified this during a meeting with the Energy Consumers Association of Nigeria (ECAN) in Abuja, yesterday, noted that the reduction affects mainly commercial and industrial consumers whose tariff were increased on January 1, 2015, in which the collection loss component was inputed.
Following a petition by the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), the NERC recently scrapped that component from their tariff structure saying that “it is the responsibility of the DISCOs to collect their revenue from their customers. Failure to do so should not be a penalty to customers who pay their bills.”
Speaking during the meeting yesterday, Amadi however, explianed that “In many places the tariff reduction was more than 50 per cent, some are about 50 per cent, but in some places like Enugu where before the new order it was over 80 percent increase, it was slash down to about 30 per cent, which gives more than 50 per cent.