Nigerians
who are complaining about the scheduled June 1 increase in electricity
tariff are in for a shocker. This is because the anticipated increment
is only the first in a series as the tariff will be raised every year
throughout the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan and even
beyond.
The Multi-Year-Tariff Order prepared by the Nigerian
Electricity Regulatory Commission, which was obtained exclusively by our
correspondent in Abuja on Monday, showed that there would be increases
in electricity tariff every year till 2016.
The tariff schedule showed that consumers would have
to pay higher on two fronts. Every year, the fixed cost will go up.
Similarly, the energy cost or cost per kilowatt hour of electricity will
also go up.
NERC had consistently said that increase in
electricity tariff would be for the short run and that the amount
payable by customers would begin to fall when the country had produced
enough electricity.
However, the tariff structure produced by NERC showed
that the short run would be longer than four years as tariffs would
continue to increase until at least 2016.
Responding to a text message by our correspondent,
the Executive Chairman, NERC, Dr. Sam Amadi, said he could not predict
the time frame when the tariff would begin to take a downward curve.
“I don’t know. It depends on the quantity of power
available and the rate at which losses are reduced and efficiency
improved,” he said.
PUNCH NEWSPAPER
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