The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) confirmed, yesterday, that some electricity consumers in the country would pay more for energy to reflect inflation trend and Foreign Exchange reality. That is what the Multi Year Tariff Order (MYTO) recommends for the sector. Although the MYTO for other distribution companies, apart from the Ibadan DisCo, was not released by NERC at the time of filing this report, consumer may need to get ready for increase in tariff from now to 2024.
There are also indications that the Federal Government would not subsidise any class of consumer by the end of this year as NERC planned to enforce 100 per cent remittance for all DisCos by the end of the year bringing to zero DisCos tariff shortfall, which stands at about 24, 521 for Ibadan DisCo.
NERC had in a released yesterday said: “in compliance with the provisions of the Electric Power Sector Reform Act (EPRSA) and the nation’s tariff methodology for biannual minor review, the rates for service bands A, B, C, D and E have been adjusted by N2.00 to N4.00 per kWhr to reflect the partial impact of inflation and movement in foreign exchange rates.”
Denying earlier reports that 50 per cent increase had been approved for electricity tariff, NERC said tariff for customers on service bands D & E (customers being served less than an average of 12hrs of supply per day over a period of one month) remained frozen and subsidised in line with the policy direction of the Federal Government.
However if fully implemented through 2024 and compared with the pre-September tariff, all electricity consumers in the country would witness increase in tariff up to about 120 per cent in an event of full cost reflective tariff, especially those under class A, B and C. In fact, by second quarter of this year, some consumers, who were under Class D and E would have been paying N59 against the N26 they are currently paying for every kilowatts peer hour.
Although Nigerians are yet to come to terms with the last increase in electricity tariff, the new Multi Year Tariff Order (MYTO) for Ibadan DisCo, which was signed by NERC Chairman, Sanusi Garba, empowers DisCos to increase tariff.
But most consumers in the Ibadan area may not experience any significant increase in their tariff as the non maximum demand (MD) and maximum demand consumers, classified under band A would keep paying current tariff of N62.33, N61.33 and 59.70 for every kilowatts for the first half of 2021. However, their tariff would increase by about N7 by the second quarter of 2021 and may increase to N74.12 by the first quarter of 2024.
Continue Reading From Source: The Guardian