New Electricity Tariff Exploitative – Maina
By Tina Phineas, Yola.
The proposed increase in electricity tariff has been described as exploitative and has the tendency of unleashing untold hardship on millions of Nigerians.
Comrade Dauda Maina, the Adamawa State branch Chairman of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) made this known when speaking to our correspondent in his office after the protest march.
According to him, the reviewed tariff is an indirect way of exploiting the masses thus the NLC is totally not in support of it.
“We are of the opinion that the fixed charges earlier withdrawn should be sustained and the tariff should be reverted to the status quo”.
Maina called upon the government and the commission in charge to carry out its promise of reforming the energy sector and ensure that there is an uninterrupted power supply before they think of increasing tariff.
“Apart from that, pre-paid meter should be provided to consumers and estimation billing will be a thing of the past as consumers will only pay for what they consume”, Maina stated.
Responding, Mr. Kingsley Nkemneme, the senior Corp0rate Communication officer of Yola Electricity Distribution Company (YEDC), said the recent tariff review was done in the interest of the consumers and the Nigerian power sectors.
“What was obtainable before was not a cost reflective figure that will improve the power sector, now the tariff had been reviewed accordingly”, he stated.
“We consulted our customers, we did what we needed to do and submitted our report to the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission to review the tariff, they did that and gave us a mandate that a new electricity tariff should be implemented as at February 1, 2016 and that is what we have done.” Nkemneme maintained further.
He disclosed that, the important part of the reviewed tariff was the removal of the fix charges and that the new tariff was “pay as you go”
