The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, NERC, has approved over 50 per cent hike in electricity tariff effective January 1, 2021, just two months after the Commission forced implementation of the highly opposed hike in November 2020.
The new tariff hike regime is to be paid by customers of the 11 electricity Distribution Companies, DISCOs. Year Tariff Order (MYTO) signed by the new Chairman of NERC, Engr. Sanusi Garba, on December 30, 2020, the new tariff increase took effect on January 1, 2021, and supersedes the previous Order NERC/2028/2020 according to Vanguard report.
The revised Service-Based Tariff (SBT) also saw an increase in the rates payable by all classes of electricity users unlike the one of November 2020, that was based on hours of electricity supply.
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This is effective till June 2021 while a Cost Reflective Tariff (CRT) expected to raise the new cost higher will be activated from June to December 2021, the NERC Order revealed.
NERC had raised tariff for the DISCOs in September but that drew outrages from customers and the organized labour, prompting the Federal Government to suspend it to pave ways for parties to dialogue.
Recall that the implementation of the revised electricity tariff jointly agreed by the organized labour and the Federal Government on Nigerian commenced in November after some discounts were given to customers.
The Power distribution companies began the implementation of the revised tariff which was reported to be lower than the September 1, 2020 service reflective tariff on 1 November 2020.
The Nigeria Labour Congress stated then that the Federal Government would not revert to the September 1, 2020 service reflective tariff that led to a widespread outcry across the country.
By: Ifunanya Ikueze
