Now pay as you consume for Electricity

yinka ogunlami

December 25, 2015 11:46 PM

Finally some good news for the common people as the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) withdraws fixed charges for monthly electricity bill for the consumers.

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Finally some good news for the common people as the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) withdraws fixed charges for monthly electricity bill for the consumers.

In a statement issued by the NERC it has been said that the electricity consumers in Nigeria would no longer pay the fixed charges which are included in the electricity bills issued by the 11 electricity distribution companies (Discos) in the country but will have to pay higher tariffs for the consumption of electricity.

The new electricity scheduled that have been approved by NERC in Abuja over the weekend have effectively removed the continuous fixed charges for all classes of electricity consumers in the whole country.

It is to be expected that from the next billing cycle, the fixed charges would not be charged by the Discos under the new tariff. The energy tariffs have been increased slightly which will vary with the type of customer.

NERC said in a statement that under their new tariff electricity consumers would now be able to pay for only what they consume or in other ways they would now be ‘pay as you go’ customers.

The fixed charges were the component of the tariff that the electricity consumers had to pay mostly on monthly basis irrespective of the fact that whether they consume electricity during the billing period or not. NERC Chairman, Dr. Sam Amandi, said that the commission acted in good faith to both customers and operators in line with its mandate to enthrone regulatory transparency in the country’s highly demanding electricity market.

He added, “This is good for electricity consumers who have long asked for more than just fair pricing of electricity. The regulatory commission promised to address all the complaints against fixed charges through a regulatory process that promotes investments in the electricity industry without unfairly burdening electricity consumers. This is in line with NERC’s mandate to be fair in all its regulatory interventions.”

“The objective of the new tariff is to enable prudent customers to save money on electricity bills as they now control their consumption and not pay the monthly fixed charges,”

yinka ogunlami