House of Representative has asked host communities to pay their electricity bills and save the distributions companies reeling in heavy revenue losses. The chairman of the House of Representatives committee on power, Dan Asuquo, admonished host communities and landlords that had insisted on free electricity for years.
Asuquo, who spoke at the end of the public hearing on power in Port Harcourt for South-South zone, said while the parliament would continue to defend the right of Nigerians from exploitative tendencies of the Discos, it must be made clear that power was a commodity and was neither free nor cheap.
He said he “comes from a host community for crushed stone, but that it is crush rock as a company that pays electricity bill for the host community,” and advised oil/gas and other host communities wishing to enjoy free electricity to negotiate it into the corporate social responsibility deal with companies in their towns instead of refusing to lay electricity bills in the name o host community status.
He said anybody refusing to pay for power in the name of host community was a joker. “My message to the south-south is, do not tell us that you will not pay. Change has come. Even the army and police now pay.”
The House of Reps spoke in the face of mounting revenue losses by the Port Harcourt Electricity Company (PHED) which says it losses 56 per cent of revenue every month from unpaid bills. The company said it loses an average of N2.5Bn per month and must still have to pay generating (GENCOs) and transmitting (TCN) companies.
He reassured the nation that power supply would hit 10,000 mw in 2017, mentioning the various power plants that would come on stream in the next one year. He admitted that transmission could pose a challenge.
The representative of the partners, Mathew Edevbie, the CEO of 4Power Company (owners of PHED), told the lawmakers on oversight visit that Port Harcourt was a peculiar territory in terms of energy business and that 90 per cent of meters installed in the region were criminally bypassed by consumers. “If we estimate bills, they cry out, if we supply card meters, they say it is running too fast. The problem is that what we sell is not seen or measurable. Many do not see when they consumed N10,000.”
Lamenting further, he said cost was rising steadily while tariff was static. He called for a form of subsidy or scheme to write off the debt overhang. He said the company had managed to move collection rate from 32 per cent when they took over in 2014 to 44 percent at the moment. He disclosed that community impact on revenue losses is over 15 percent.
The public forum was rife with complaints of over billing, poor supply, paying for transformers and poor response to complaints. Some of the customers accused the National Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) of ineptitude while others called on the minister of power to resign.
Asuquo however said his committee would insist on getting definite timelines when PHED and NERC would solve every single complaint lodged at the forum, saying the forum was as interactive as possible to enable both parties resolve their differences and achieve satisfaction.
Responding, the acting NERC chairman, Anthony Akah, said all those who brought complaints to the NERC forum in Port Harcourt had all admitted that verdicts were given, but said it was left for customers to report back if the order of the commission was not implemented.
He said the commission also felt the pains of the consumers especially on metering and over-billing, but that the commission also felt knew the difficulties of the Discos (and other operators in the power chain).
He noted that most complainants at the forum commended PHED despite some complaints, which were being addressed. He said customers must not pay for meters or transformers anymore and should report any person forcing it on them.
Akah however reminded PHED customers that the South South had a difficult terrain, but that they were aware of that fact before bidding. On vandalism, he said the menace was too much and had crashed the supply of gas and power availability.
He urged consumers to feel free to contest bills that did not tally with estimating rules, but that the consumer would still pay if he lost the contest. He said; “Electricity is a product and is affected by other factors too. All items have gone up and people still expect electricity bills to remain the same.”
He said suing Discos and securing judgements against tariff increase would crash the power sector in the new future especially by stifling current investment and scaring away banks and other financiers.
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