The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, NERC, said Thursday that the newly-approved tariff for residential consumers will not come into effect until June 2015,
NERC, in a statement its Head of Media, Mr. Michael Faloseyi, said that the tariff was a review of the Multi Year Tariff Order, MYTO 2, to factor the losses that were now different.
According to the statement, the new price of gas is usually part of the minor review done every six months and that the review has raised the cost of distributing power supply nationwide by the 11 electricity distribution companies (Discos).
The tariff is expected to affect all electricity consumers, the electricity sector regulator added..
The statement added, “But because of the commitment that NERC to ensure that consumers are not further disposed to increased cost until there are improvements in supply, which we expect shortly, we have frozen the increment for six months for Residential consumers (R2).
“We approved an amendment to the MYTO tariff basically which means a new tariff order that continues with the existing framework but now shows a different figure for the remaining five year tariff structure.”
NERC further explained that with the commencement of MYTO 2.1, it would hold electricity distribution, transmission, generation companies and other market operators to the terms and conditions of their licences.
It said further that the measures were being put in place to ensure that the new owners fund their operations and improve electricity supply.
The regulator said it made the adjustment in order to shield ordinary Nigerians from possibility of rates shock that could have accompanied the review.
Nigerians are uncomfortable with these tariff raises in the midst of low power supply and now popular çrazy bills’ that come from the distribution companies.
