Electricity: Except customers are metered new tariff hike will cause dissatisfaction – FCCPC

The Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission, FCPCC says unless electricity customers are metered by electricity distribution companies, DISCOS implementation of the new tariff hike will cause dissatisfaction.

Adamu Abdullahi, the acting Executive Vice Chairman of FCCPC disclosed this on Sunday in a statement lauding the N200 million sanction imposed on Abuja Electricity Distribution Company, AEDC by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission for wrongly billing customers.

The Commission’s reaction comes on the backdrop of the recent tariff hike for electricity customers under Band A, getting at least 20 hours of power supplies.

Meanwhile, FCCPC urged NERC to mandate Discos to provide meters for all customers under Band A within 60 days to address the fears of arbitrary billings.

Similarly, the commission said that customers under Band B, C, D, and E getting 16 hours of power supplies and below should not be migrated by Discos to Band A without being metered.

“Many consumers have expressed fear that the likelihood of arbitrary estimated billing for unmetered Band A customers could lead to consumer abuse and dissatisfaction.

“DisCos’ repeated failure to meet the minimum power supply hours for respective tariff bands and their failure over time to compensate consumers for service downtime have made consumer grievances worse.

“To address these concerns and promote consumer welfare under the current service reflective tariff regime, FCCPC encourages NERC to mandate DisCos to meter all unmetered Band A customers within 60 days, thus ensuring accurate billing and protecting consumers from arbitrary estimations.

“It is the Commission’s view that unless a consumer on Band B, C, D, or E is metered, the DisCo should not be allowed to migrate such a consumer to a higher tariff band to avoid any form of exploitation. This will also serve as an incentive for DisCos to meter consumers.

“The Commission is confident that NERC will persist in imposing appropriate penalties on DisCos for violations, which will promote compliance and accountability in the electricity industry.

“FCCPC reaffirms its commitment to protecting consumer interests and ensuring equitable practices within Nigeria’s electricity sector”.

The 12 million electricity customers only 5.7 million are metered according to NERC’s data.