…directs customer refunds
The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) has slammed a N200 million fine on the Abuja Electricity Distribution plc (AEDC) for failing to comply with the Supplementary Order to the April 2024 Multi-Year Tariff Order.
The commission in a notice signed by its management, on Friday, said that AEDC failed to comply with the prescribed customer band classifications for the tariff billing.
The commission recently approved a new tariff which saw an increase in the amount payable by electricity customers under Band A from N68/kWh to N225/kWh.
According to the commission, the new tariff is expected to affect only Band A customers, stressing that DisCos are under an obligation to provide customers classified under Band A service category a minimum average supply of 20hrs/day measured over one week.
With this, all other customers under Band B to E service category and representing 85 percent of the customer population would not be affected by the current review of end-user tariffs.
However, the commission stated that a detailed review and customer feedback revealed that AEDC had applied the new tariff to all customer bands, contrary to the Order, which was designed to ensure fair billing practices.
Read also: Electricity tariff: How to know your feeder band
The commission, therefore, mandated the AEDC to reimburse all customers in Bands B, C, D and E respectively that were billed above the allowed customer categories/tariff bands provided in the Order.
“AEDC has been fined N200m for failure to comply with the prescribed customer band classifications for the tariff billing.
“AEDC is, therefore, mandated to reimburse through the provision of the balance of customer tokens that the affected customers would be entitled to receive at the applicable rates and all token reimbursements shall be issued to the affected customers by 11 April 2024.
“Pay the sum of N200m as a fine for the flagrant breach of the commission’s order, file evidence of compliance with the directives in a & c with the commission by 12 April 2024, the regulator told the DisCo.
