Group decries injustice against electricity consumers by NERC, DisCos
Story from Abah ADAH, Abuja
Nigerian-based Association for Public Policy Analysis (APPA) has reaffirmed its stance that the Electricity Distribution Companies (DisCos) in the country are unjustly exploiting their customers while the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), which has the statutory responsibility of governing the sector in fairness to all sides in the industry, stands aloof.
In a statement signed by its national President, Comrade Princewill Okorie,
the association said it was constrained to issue statement to express concern over the response of the Minister for Finance, Budget and National Planning and Director General, Budget Office of the Federation to a question it asked earlier as to whether the projected revenue receipts captured in the proposed 2022 Federal Appropriation include receipts from profit made by licensed DisCos from payments made by consumers of electricity in the country since 2013 when power sector privatisation took effect.
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“We also raised question on the partial implementation of sections of Electric Power Sector Reform Act (EPSRA), 2005 in favour of DisCos and against consumers by NERC and other government agencies in the power sector,” it added.
APPA noted that the partial implementation contravenes section 32(1) (f) of the EPSRA 2005, which provides that NERC should ensure that regulation is fair and balanced to licensees, consumers, investors and other stakeholders.
Recalling an example it sited, the group alleged that National Power Training Institute of Nigeria (NAPTIN) had only 15,000 personnel since inception of privatisation in 2013 among whom are staff of Electricity Distribution Companies, Transmission Company of Nigeria, Nigeria Electricity Management Services Agency, Rural Electrification Agency of Nigeria, etc. to the exclusion of representative of consumers whom it said are being exploited through illegal over bloated billings irrespective of the fact that they depend on generators for production and service delivery as a result of poor power supply.
“Even community organisations whose members contribute in rural electrification by providing infrastructure through communal effort are still being billed illegally.
“If a consumer by-passes meter, he is treated as a criminal but when the DISCOs over-bill consumers and illegally disconnects them, nothing is done to the DISCO. Instead, the consumer is made to undergo tortuous rigorous processes without assurance of justice.
The response of the D.G Budget Office to consumers on the issue was that it is the mandate of NERC to handle consumer issues in the power sector “so, if there is a specific complain, it should be directed to NERC, and they should be held to account”, but APPA argued that they had petitioned NERC and its forum offices for more than two years over the sharp practices perpetrated by the DisCos to no avail till date.
“In the intervention of the Minister for Power who wrote NERC to investigate the matter and report back did not make NERC do the needful,” the group noted.
The Minister of Finance, according to the statement, said “None of these DisCos are reporting profits and therefore have not started paying taxes or remitting dividends to shareholders which is not what has been hoped when the privatisation was done,”And the director of Budget corroborated the Minister’s position saying “Instead of receiving money from DisCos, we have actually made provisions in this budget to pay money to the DisCos, you share in the profit when the company makes profit and declares dividend.
“So the billings of the DisCos are not part of government’s revenue. On the contrary, because the electricity tariff as being paid does not cover the cost of producing power.
There is a short fall in the tariff which government gives on behalf of the citizens and in this budget for 2022; this tariff shortfall is projected at N300 billion and that is what we provided. So instead of DisCos giving government, this is the money we have to pay”.
The group said in view of the response, its concern had become imperative given the fact that the country is borrowing money to finance the budget even as it has injected over 17 billion dollars with support of International Development partners into the power sector since 2016, but has no mechanism in place to monitor collections made through estimated billing.
The group therefore made some recommendations: That a commission of inquiry be instituted by the federal, state and local governments to inquire into payments made by consumers at these levels to DisCos based on bills given to them through estimation, meters and bulk billing;
That consumer enumeration be carried out at the three levels of government to ascertain the actual number of metered and unmetered consumers paying electricity bills in the country; That electricity Infrastructure Assessment Committee be set up to verify the number of functional and non-functional transformers in the country, as well as funds invested by Communities and DisCos for provision of infrastructure; That since the distribution companies are having problem with liquidity and service delivery, waivers should be applied or Electric Power Sector Reform Act be reviewed to allow eligible customers take power directly from generation companies.
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