As Nigerians react over electricity tariff hike, ActionAid Nigeria, AAN, Friday, hailed the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, NERC, over slamming the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company, AEDC, with N200 million for overcharging customers. In a chat with Saturday Vanguard, the Country Director, AAN, Andre Mamedu, described the fine as hefty and would send a strong message to other DisCOs across the country if they fail to comply with the regulatory laws for the power sector. On Friday, NERC imposed a N200 million fine on AEDC for increasing tariff for customers that are not on Band A and for failure to comply with the prescribed customer Band classifications for tariff billing.
According to the statement, the decision follows a detailed review and customer feedback, which revealed that AEDC had applied the new tariff to all customer bands, contrary to the order, which was designed to ensure fair billing practices. Andrew said: “ActionAid Nigeria applauds NERC’s swift response to the false billing by AEDC. The imposition of a hefty fine on AEDC sends a strong message that non-compliance with regulatory directives will not be tolerated, especially considering the issue around wrongly placing locations on various bands, with clear evidence of them not receiving power supply up to the period they are assigned under.”
He further stated that, “Although such billing errors should never have occurred in the first place, it is reassuring to see regulatory action being taken. However, he counselled that, “Moving forward, NERC must uphold rigorous oversight and accountability within distribution companies and rigorously enforce compliance across the sector to guarantee fair and transparent treatment of consumers.” In conclusion, he said as an organisation that stands for social justice and human rights demands reversal of the tariff. “We reiterate our call for the unjustified tariff hike approved by NERC to be reversed”, he said.
