The Civil Liberties Organisation (CLO) on Tuesday, warned the Federal Ministry of Power not to carry out its plan? to increase electricity tariff on June 1.?
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the new Multi-Year Tariff Order (MYTO) officially released by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) in February took effect from the end of April.
The Chairman of the NERC,? Dr Sam Amadi,? said the increase in tariff would not be 100 per cent across board as some factors would be put into consideration to determine the price differential across the different tariff levels.
Addressing newsmen in Lagos, the State Chairman of the CLO, Mr Ehi Omokhuale, said that it would be unfair to increase energy tariff,? considering the poor electricity services rendered to the nation.
“This great cheating to Nigerians. Before the PHCN should contemplate power increase, it must have been seen to improve its services.
“There is too much suffering in the land in the midst of trillions and billions being stolen by individuals. PHCN has no justification for inflicting more hardship on Nigerians,’’ he said.
The CLO boss, however, said that the organisation would resist any further attempt to foist such payments on Nigerians.
He said that what the PHCN should be thinking was how to compensate Nigerians for the many years of darkness through free power supply for at least five years.
NAN reports that the differences in the price change would be based on factors such as the capacity of the different power distribution companies and different categories of customers on board.
Others factors are cost of service to customers, location (area), cost of producing power vis-à-vis the area and the number of customers per location.
MYTO, according to the NERC, is aimed at gradually increasing electricity tariff to attract private investors.
The commission had planned to release the new tariff for all categories of electricity consumers in November 2011 but consultations with relevant stakeholders delayed the approval.
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