The Senate has halted the Federal Government's plan to remove electricity subsidy as well as increase electricity tariff.
The Upper Legislative Chamber halted the plan to withdraw electricity subsidy through a motion it has adopted at plenary in Abuja on Wednesday.
The motion was captioned “Planned Increase in Electricity Tariff and Arbitrary Billing of Unmetered Customers by Distribution Companies (DisCos)” brought under matters of urgent public importance by Sen. Aminu Iya Abbas (PDP Adamawa) and 10 co-sponsors
Sen. Iya Abbas, said it was worrisome to hear of the plan to increase electricity tariff by the relevant statutory authority in spite increased economic challenges with attendant widespread poverty and high cost of living in Nigeria.
He claimed that the minister of power was reported to have said that “The nation must begin to move towards a cost-effective tariff model, as the country was currently indebted with N1.3 trillion naira to Generating Companies (GenCos) and $1.3 billion owed gas companies.
According to Sen. Iya Abass, the minister had said that more than N2 trillion was needed for subsidy, but only N450 billion was budgeted in 2024.
“The Senate may further note that the same electricity businesses are collecting money from customers for services not rendered, when they have not added anything to the equipment, they inherited from Power Holding Company of Nigeria.
“Communities buy transformers to replace damaged ones in addition to over-burden bills and arbitrary estimates for unmetered customers.
“This is taking place in a country where the greater number of the population is living below the poverty level, with stagnant wages, rising inflation and depreciating currency, the prospect of higher electricity bill is unattainable,” Abbas said.
He said that arbitrary energy charges on unmetered customers had become worrisome given Feb.2024 report of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) on non-compliance with energy billing caps by DisCos and penalty of N10.5 billion imposed on DisCos that over-billed its unmetered customers
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