Amid the motion by the Nigerian Senate on Tuesday abolishing estimated billing system by the electricity Distribution Companies, consumers say the DISCOs may not obey the Senate as they are insisting that they do not have ready made meters for distribution to homes of millions of Nigerians who do not have them now. Some of the consumer who spoke in separate interviews on Thursday, said that the DISCOs are saying they have not been given directive to discontinue the current billing system, more especially as there no meters available to be installed for millions of consumer that need them.
This is even as a source close to the management Ikeja distribution company have said that manufacturing and distribution of the meters take time, so government will give ample moratorium to the DISCOs before talking of abolishing estimated billing.
“It will take time to set up the factories that will mass produce the meters, that if we go for that option, but if we are to import, orders will be placed and it will take too to be produced before shipment will take place, before the distribution can start. It is a long process before the consumer can get the meters.
We talking of a year a year and half before this process can be concluded,” the source who would want his name on print, said. But a resident of Bucknor Estate in Isolo, Lagos, Chief Folorunsho Fawora told Sunday Telegraph that the DISCOs will not want to comply with the consumer-friendly stance of the Senate, said he paid DISCO for a pre-paid meter in over six months, it has not been installed for him, rather the company continues to collect estimated bill of N12, 000 monthly for his two flats he shares with one tenant. “I paid N40, 000 for my two flats since February but I have not heard anything from them, yet our estimated bill has risen from N7, 000 to N12, 000 monthly since then,” he said.
Another resident of Okafa, Isolo area of Lagos, Mr. Ebel Unegbu said his effort to get a clearer picture from the DISCO on what will happen to the meters, he paid for since last year but which have not been delivered; he was told that there is non in stock. “They complained that manufacturing of the meters have not started in the country and there is nothing they can do about it now.
So it is obvious the Senate and NERC directive may not be heeded by the DISCOs,” he said A resident of Apapa GRA Mr. Femi Omojala, lauded the action of the Senate and the directive of the NERC, saying he has enjoyed his pre-paid meter for over two years, paying only for what he consumes. To him, government should direct its attention on ensuring stable power supply.
“The DISCOs must be compelled to start to install the prepaid meters which the discontinued last year. They seem not interested in making investment in the business they are doing, they just want to be collecting cheap money which they did not work for through estimated billing.
“Also Nigerian must learn to resist the DISCOs on this estimated billing issue, it is unfair and criminal to collecting money for the service they did not render,” he said.
This coming as the National Electricity Regulatory Commission has said that it has given the DISCOs four months moratorium to provide meters to the consumers at the end of which a fixed rate lower than their counterparts who have been provided with meters are paying.
According to the Commission chairman, Dr. Sam Amadi, who addressed newsmen in Abuja on Tuesday, a new regulation would soon be made public and electricity distribution companies would be forced to either provide meters to all their customers within four months or accept a limit on what they can charge on estimated billing. Amadi said after four months of moratorium, the firms would not be able to charge such consumers beyond what would be prescribed according to the region or zone where the customer was based.
According to him, the ceiling of the tariff, which a customer on estimated billing can pay, is an incentive for the distribution firms to metre call customers, adding that the capped tariff would be significantly lower than what metred customers pay.
The NERC boss said after 16 months, customers of a distribution company who had not been metred would be freed from paying any tariff at all until they were provided with meters.
He said, “In view of the Discos’ negative attitude to metering, an option worth considering to incentivise metering is to place a limit on the ability of a Disco to arbitrarily estimate consumers who are not metered.
“This has the tendency of encouraging the Discos to accelerate the implementation of metering plans that have been talked about but not implemented before privatisation and after taking over the management of the Discos.”
“All estimates being imposed by the Discos within the moratorium period shall be strictly based on the commission’s billing estimation methodology. As soon as the capping regulation commences, the extant regulation on estimation methodology will be vacated.
Similarly, the DISCOs to stop the practice of compulsory bulk metering of villages and communities in rural areas and that consumers should be at liberty to choose whether to be part of bulk metering scheme or not.
The senators further directed DISCOs to henceforth stop the practice of making consumers bear the cost of meters, poles and transformers, which by law, were their properties, with a condition that where same had been purchased, the consumers should give notice to the Discos and should be entitled to recoup their expenses from subsequent consumption of electricity.
These directives were resolutions arising from a motion moved on Tuesday by Senator Sam Egwu and Senator David Umaru, titled: “Unfair Trade Practices of Electricity Distribution Companies in Nigeria”.
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