The Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) has emphasized that without electricity customers being properly metered by electricity distribution companies (DISCOs), the implementation of the new tariff hike will likely lead to dissatisfaction.
Adamu Abdullahi, the acting Executive Vice Chairman of FCCPC, made this assertion in a statement released on Sunday, commending the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission’s imposition of a N200 million sanction on the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) for inaccurately billing customers.
The Commission’s stance comes in response to the recent tariff increase affecting electricity customers categorized under Band A, who receive a minimum of 20 hours of power supply. Meanwhile, FCCPC has urged the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) to compel DISCOs to provide meters for all Band A customers within 60 days to address concerns regarding arbitrary billing.
Furthermore, FCCPC stressed that customers classified under Bands B, C, D, and E, who receive 16 hours of power supply or less, should not be transferred to Band A without first being properly metered.
“Many consumers have expressed fear that the likelihood of arbitrary estimated billing for unmetered Band A customers could lead to consumer abuse and dissatisfaction.
“DisCos’ repeated failure to meet the minimum power supply hours for respective tariff bands and their failure over time to compensate consumers for service downtime have made consumer grievances worse.
“To address these concerns and promote consumer welfare under the current service reflective tariff regime, FCCPC encourages NERC to mandate DisCos to meter all unmetered Band A customers within 60 days, thus ensuring accurate billing and protecting consumers from arbitrary estimations.
“It is the Commission’s view that unless a consumer on Band B, C, D, or E is metered, the DisCo should not be allowed to migrate such a consumer to a higher tariff band to avoid any form of exploitation. This will also serve as an incentive for DisCos to meter consumers.
“The Commission is confident that NERC will persist in imposing appropriate penalties on DisCos for violations, which will promote compliance and accountability in the electricity industry.
“FCCPC reaffirms its commitment to protecting consumer interests and ensuring equitable practices within Nigeria’s electricity sector”.
It reported that of the 12 million electricity customers only 5.7 million are metered according to NERC’s data.
