The House of Representatives Committee on Power and the Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission, NERC, Tuesday, agreed that the planned hike in electricity tariffs was not backed by any law.
Subsequently, the House Committee headed by Magaji Da’u Aliyu (APC-Jigawa), ordered the Minister of Power, Engr. Saleh Mamman and NERC to suspend the plan indefinitely.
The committee also rejected a Presidential Directive to the Power Ministry, transferring the supervision of the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Transmission, NBET, to the Ministry of Finance and claims by NERC that 50 per cent of Nigerians, had prepaid metres.
The Committee, besides rejecting the presidential directive on NBET, also called on the Ministry and NERC to suspend the review of tariffs, until all customers had prepaid metres and the NERC law was tweaked to authorise the policy.
The committee, in the course of grilling the Managing Director of NERC, Prof. James Momoh, who was represented at the panel by Mr Shafudeen Mahmud, the Commission’s General Manager of Marketing, agreed with its MD, that the policy of the agency to hike tariffs twice in a year, based on market forces, was not supported by the NERC Act.
The exchange went thus:
Aliyu: “Where in the NERC Act, are you empowered to raise the tariff on electricity twice in a year?
NERC: “I agree. It is not in the law.”
The Committee members also rejected the Ministry of Power’s claim that the Nigeria Bulk Electricity Trading Company, NBET, was transferred to the Ministry of Finance, insisting that as far as the law setting up the agency was concerned, it remained under the supervision of the Ministry of Power.
The committee faulted claims by NERC that an electricity subsidy fund of N213billion was captured in the 2020 budget, to help crash cost of electricity purchased by consumers.
The lawmakers said they were not opposed to hikes, but would insist that all customers are availed prepaid metres before the hike was implemented.
The representative of NERC, Mr Mahmud, had earlier, told the committee that the plan to increase the tariff in April was in line with the responsibilities of the commission.
He said the commission was responsible for tariff hikes twice every year and intended to soon start sensitizing the public on the policy.
He, however, added that the review won’t be a measure one, as it will reflect the current exchange and inflation rates.
“This time, it’s going to be a minor review, based on the exchange rate and inflation rate. We are also review ing to reflect fuel price changes,” he said, but confessed after a persistent grill from members, that it was illegal.
