Still on estimated billing by Discos
Despite the coming into effect of the new Multi-Year Tariff Order (MYTO) 2015 on February 1, 2016, Nigerians have continued to groan under crazy bills without corresponding electricity supply. The electricity distribution companies (DISCOs) have hidden under the lack of possession of metres to continue extort consumers by charging them to pay for electricity that was never supplied or consumed. It is unacceptable that people are forced to pay for the services they never enjoyed. From available information, the crazy bills are deliberate acts by the discos to boost their revenue base and to have enough money to meet their obligations to other stakeholders such as the generation stations and gas suppliers.
But the way and manner it is being implemented is antithetic to reason, equity, justice or even any sound commercial or economic thinking. Usually, when the Discos get the bills for power supplied to them by the Gencos, they, just arbitrarily divide and assign the bills among the various areas of operation (and there among consumers without pre-paid meters) and insist those places must pay the bills whether they like it or not. Of course this action has been counterproductive as most of people and areas (which are usually the poor) are unable to pay these outrageous bills, which most often considered too high for them to pay. A situation whereby a bill of N25, 000 is slammed on a consumers who stay in a one bedroom flat, which hardly receives power supply for more than four hours in a week is outrageous.
The crazy billing practice has also led to a huge industry of corruption. Since many of the consumers feel the bills are too huge for them to pay, they resort to bribing colluding officials of the Discos to avoid paying the allotted bills. Meanwhile the Discos record such bills against the consumers.
In most cases, the spurious bills are so high that the Discos have no realistic ways of collecting them. This is despite the obvious fact that electricity supply is yet to improve and never reflects the bills given to consumers without meters. It is no exaggeration therefore to assert that poor Nigerians are virtually paying huge bills for “darkness”. Perhaps also, that is why the Discos have been most reluctant and unwilling to ensure the proliferation of pre-paid meters. Prepaid meters would bring more fairness and transparency into the system.
Sadly too, this extortion has been going on for years without the government or anyone coming to the aid of hapless and poor Nigerians. It is only in Nigeria that organisations would defraud the citizens and no government institution would come to the aids of it citizens. This is why, for instance, Residents of Uyo, the Akwa Ibom state capital and its environs, who could no longer stomach the barefaced extortion, had had to stage a protest over what they described as “uncoordinated and fraudulent charges” they have been receiving since the takeover of electricity generation and distribution by new owners.
The Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry, LCCI, whose members are ripped off by the outrageous electricity bills, joined in calling on the National Electricity Regulatory Commission, NERC, to urgently address the growing concerns of electricity consumers who are inundated monthly with over-bloated bills.
The power situation is still a major problem for businesses across all sectors. Energy cost remains a major threat to business sustainability. Expenditure on diesel and other fuels continue to increase and profit margins of firms have been adversely affected.
This act of impunity by the Discos must stop. They must not drive Nigerians to the point of revolt. There is nowhere in the world where people are forced to pay for services not rendered.
It is clear that the power sector privatisation is yet to make the desired impact. That is why we supported the new tariff regime that adequately reflects the cost of power generation and production. This will in turn, enable the Discos, Gencos and gas suppliers to attract investments and secure funds to revamp dilapidated infrastructure to boost power supply.
Our position is that the Discos must, without delay, ensure the metering of all power consumers in the country, do away with the concept of fixed charges and ensure consumers are charged only for power consumed.