Electricity consumers awaiting refunds from the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission on excess tariff imposed on them by the commission since January 1, 2015 have been advised to forget about it.
Our correspondent gathered that the NERC had no plans to refund any customer who had suffered from the excess billing spree.
The Federal Government last Tuesday announced a reduction in electricity tariffs by 50 per cent, saying the action followed a series of complaints by electricity consumers.
But the Chief Executive Officer of the commission, Dr. Sam Amadi, told our correspondent in a telephone interview that the tariff slash order of the federal government was not retroactive and that it would only take effect and become operative from the new business cycle, which commences on March 31/April 1.
Amadi explained that as such, the order could not be back-dated, as it was impracticable to go back to the past to address tariff issues.
He said, “There won’t be any refund. It is a new policy, and you cannot refund for the period when the directive was not there.”
Tentatively, he said the new billing takes effect from April 1.
He added, “As at today, many of the power distribution companies have put up their bills for power consumed, and they cannot go back.”
The Federal Government through NERC had said it took the decision after it removed the collection loss component of the Multi Year Tariff Order 2.1 of the affected Discos.
The commission had admitted that the addition of the Aggregate Technical, Commercial and Collection losses to the reviewed tariff that was implemented on January 1, 2015 was responsible for the high tariff.
The addition, according to it, was done after the regulatory commission conducted a fact-finding tour of the Discos and noted that it was aimed at ensuring a cost reflective tariff by passing the bulk to ‘‘paying’’ consumers for losses incurred from ‘‘non-paying’’ consumers.
Meanwhile, most of the Discos, after the tariff reduction was announced, said they had anticipated recouping their Aggregate Technical, Commercial and Collection losses from consumers based on the provisions of the Multi Year Tariff Order 2.1.
Before the official cut of the tariff by NERC on Tuesday, the MYTO 2.1 order, which took effect on January 1, 2015, allowed the Discos to recoup their losses from customers by passing the bulk to ‘paying’ consumers for losses incurred from ‘non-paying’ consumers.
They (Discos) had admitted that the tariff reduction would lead to the tightening of the revenue sources of the power firms.
Their worries were also heightened by the fact that the cut in tariff came at a time when the country is faced with a weak national currency and the supply of power from the generation companies is nothing to write home about.
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