Notwithstanding the fact that the privatisation of the nation’s power sector brought renewed hope for Nigerians both in the area of better power supply and general improvement in services, it is unnerving that since taking over operations of the various utilities in November 2013, the Distribution Companies (Discos) have done little to improve electricity supply or close the huge metering gap that exists in the electricity sector, thus leaving millions of consumers to consistently pay a N750 fixed charge and also remain at the mercy of estimated billing and bulk metering.
According to World Bank statistics, only about half of all Nigerian households (48 per cent) have access to electricity, and often, only for a few
hours a day. Of the amount with access to electricity, only 44 per cent of the number are metered. Speaking recently at a public hearing on Estimated Billing in the Power Sector, in Abuja, the Assistant General Manager in charge of Customer Service Standard at NERC, Mr. Shittu Lawal lamented a situation where electricity consumers have continue to bear the burden of inadequate metering across the country. According to him, “Over 44 per cent of registered electricity consumers in the country do not have effective metering systems. This is unacceptable.”
Be that as it may, it is an open secret that adequate power supply continues to elude the generality of the people. Even in model cities and prestigious areas like Lagos and Abuja, generators remain a common sight, and sadly so, going by the humongous amounts reportedly sunk into the power sector by previous administrations. In realisation of this unfair and unwholesome practice of milking Nigerians by the Discos, the 8th Senate had directed the National Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) to immediately abolish the fixed charges with all the money so collected as fixed charges across the country accounted for.
The Senators reached the decision after discussion on a motion on the “Unfair Trade Practices of Electricity Distribution Companies (Discos) in Nigeria sponsored by Senators Sam Egwu (Ebonyi North) and David Umaru (Niger East). Egwu, while leading the debate on the floor of the Senate, lamented that Discos have been defrauding Nigerians through untenable fixed charges and bulk metering across the country.
However, the directive by the Senate seems not to have gone down well with Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) who has stated in unmistakable terms that the charges in question, even though unwarranted, are legal. Its chairman, Dr. Sam Amadi, who upholds this stipulation religiously, predicates it on the fact that the operators invest in assets on a regular basis and recover their investment through the fixed charge which power consumers grudgingly pay.
I dare say that the NERC boss is a lawyer of note. He clearly knows how to stick to the law even though it has outlived its usefulness or inimical to the people it is meant to serve and protect. He cannot claim to be unaware that the fee has long become a drain in the pockets of Nigerians owing to its reoccurrence even in the face of months of power outage. The consumers in the Nigeria Electricity Supply Industry (NESI) have continued to cry out but nobody came to their rescue until the 8th Senate, as true representatives of the people, raised the alarm about the exploitative and injurious nature of the fixed charge in the electricity market. Amadi’s recourse to law as justification for the continuous payment of the charge is tantamount to saying that the National Assembly should not cry wolf having made the Electric Power Sector Reform Act (EPSA) 2005 which allows the commission to approve the fixed charge as a component of the Multi Year Tariff Order (MYTO). I don’t think this should be the case because as they say, what is fair is fair, what is unfair is unfair. The NERC should not be content at enforcing the law but must be equally concerned about the plight of Nigerians who monthly cough out N750 as fixed charge to robe the eggheads in the Discos.
Yes, fixed electricity bill is lawful going by the provisions of the Electric Power Sector Reform Act (EPSA) but now that the Discos are far from providing satisfactory services to Nigerians, we ought to move to the next level of either repeal and reenact the EPSR Act in terms that are not only agreeable but just and equitable. What Nigerians need at this time is not a justification from the NERC but that they be given the latitude to pay for what they consume. It is time for NERC to realise and urgently so that man was not made for law but law for man. The EPSR Act was made with the understanding that Nigerians will get constant electricity supply. Now that this is not the case, that aspect that mandates them to pay a monthly fixed charge must now be expunged and if possible, what they have already remitted calculated and refunded.
A discretional view rather than legal perspective would show that the law never conceived this worst case scenario where customers pay for darkness. The law is obviously that of marriage of convenience that has erroneously or criminally made the operators receive payment even when they have not produced and supplied their content (power).
The reason why law is created is to give confidence to the market. It is a hope raiser to note that beyond what was reported by the media, NERC had actually gone a step further by initiating measures to redress all the noted anomalies by the upper chambers. Amadi in a response to the Senate’s query posted on the Commission’s website had reeled out a number of interventions which when implemented are capable of putting smiles on the faces of electricity consumers. Amadi explained that, “The Commission agrees with the Senate’s position on the need to eliminate the practice of bulk billing residential customers and replace the practice with individual metering and billing…..The decision of the Commission stipulated that every customer is expected to be metered individually irrespective of the status of supply coming into the area and the class of billing should be on R2 or as appropriately determined by Discos,” he stated. He posited further that “Communities who are placed on bulk billing should reject it and insist on individual metering. The Commission is in the process of completing public consultation on a proposal to cap the amount an unmetered customer can pay until he or she is metered.” He added that “The proposal will also commit distribution companies to strict deadline for metering of all its customers. In the interim, the Commission has abolished connection of new customers without meters.”
I strongly hold that with the sustenance of the privatisation deal, the operators will surely recoup their investment. I believe investments in the power sector are in the long term. The investors cannot seek to recoup their investment overnight. They ought to endure the long gestation period after which they can smile to the bank endlessly. In other words, the issue of cost recovery should not cross the mind of any investor at this moment as they are barely 21 months in the business. The executive with due collaboration from the National Assembly must compel them to implement their purchase agreements or the investment plans they presented before they took over the power entities.
I dare say that without the total abolition of the fixed charge, the generation, distribution and transmission companies will not be challenged to boost power supply since they make easy fortune no matter the quantum of power they supply.
However, Nigerians, especially the lawmakers who supervise the power sector must be watchful as NERC may in the long run remove the fixed charge and convert it to energy charge. The situation will not make any difference to the consumers at the receiving end. The Senate’s debate and directive must not be in vain.
I consider the N750 fixed charge as way too high and too heavy a burden to be borne on a monthly basis by Nigerians in view of our peculiar circumstances – epileptic power supply.
Is NERC meant to serve the interest of Nigerians or the profitability of Discos? I believe that the 8th Senate under the leadership of Senate President, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki is committed to ensure that Nigerians are not further exploited in this barefaced and tricky manner by Discos. The upper chamber must show to Nigerians that they are ready to work out appropriate legislation to correct the anomaly.
Ref: http://www.leadership.ng/columns/456022/is-nerc-for-us-or-against-us
No comments:
Post a Comment