Some electricity consumers have expressed their disappointment with the new tariff regime being implemented by the Electricity Distribution Companies.
The customers in their engagement with the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) in its official Twitter handle accused the DisCos of not adhering to the terms of the increment.
On September 1, the DisCos announced that they had started implementing new Service Reflective Tariff Plan (SRT) across their franchise areas
In their defence, the DisCos said the classes of customers had been categorised into five bands with bands D and E who were not enjoying 12 hours of power supply not affected by the new tariff plan.
However, in their tweets, the customers said the categorisation was shrouded in secrecy while power supply since the increment began had dropped drastically.
They also urged the DisCos to identify specific areas with their bands and send text messages to customers within those areas in order to stop the ongoing exploitation.
According to them, the real outrage will be felt when the huge number of unmetered customers receive their bills for the month of September because the DisCos have failed to implement the capping on estimated bill.
A customer simply called Captain , who shared the electricity supply report for Sept. 8 under Ikeja Electric network, said a total of six hours and thirty six minutes was supplied for the day.
“This is from the DisCo that increased my tariff from N24 to N56/unit on the basis of 16 hours a day supply of electricity, ” he said.
Bola, another customer, said the new electricity tariff hike was nothing but pure wickedness.
“Over 100 per cent hike? I just bought Kilowatt I used to buy for N2, 000 for over N5, 000.
“There is load shedding in my area (two days on and one day off) and there is no guarantee of 15 hours at the two days on, “she said.
Mr Olumide Adeniyi, said it was difficult to understand the operations of the DisCos.
“Before the introduction of the new tariff, power supply in my area was about 18 hours in a day. At present, we barely have it for four hours and the tariff has gone up. Ridiculous!!!,” he said.
Similarly, Mr Ibrahim Bawa under the Kaduna Electricity Distribution Company said the tariff have been reviewed but the supply have not been improved.
“I currently pay more than N50/Kwh but get less than ten hours .If DisCos cannot provide up to 12 hours then revert to old rates,” he said.
For Mr Ajiji Ishaya, a customer under the Jos Electricity Distribution Company, the situation remains the same
“The day the tariff started on Sept. 1, we suddenly had uninterrupted power supply for like three to four days which I thought was surreal.
“And then @josdisco confirmed my fears, things came back to normal in the last few days. We even completed 24 hours without light yesterday.”
Responding, NERC thanked the customers for sharing their experiences, adding that it had communicated the complaints to all DisCos.
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