The Nigeria Government has yet again increased the electricity tariff payable by power consumers across the country.
The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission authorised the new tariff, which took effect from January 1, 2021.
According to The PUNCH, the NERC announced the tariff hike in its December 2020 slight review of the Multi-Year Tariff Order and Minimum Remittance Order obtained in Abuja on Tuesday.
This tariff increase is coming just two months after the government through NERC implemented a hike in November 2020, which saw widespread opposition.
The MYTO order containing the latest tariff hike, Order NERC/225/2020, was signed by the new Chairman of NERC, Sanusi Garba, replacing the previous Order NERC/2028/2020.
The commission explained that the reason for the tariff hike was that it had measured the 14.9 per cent inflation rate rise in November 2020 and foreign exchange of N379.4/$1 as of December 29, 2020.
Others reasons were, the United States inflation rate of 1.22 per cent, available generation capacity and the Capital Expenditure of the power firms before the tariff was raised.
The commission also added that the fresh tariff would be effective till June 2021 while a Cost Reflective Tariff would start from June to December 2021.
Recall, in September last year, the commission raised electricity tariff which was trailed by stiff opposition from the organised labour, as the unions threatened to embark on a nationwide strike.
After a series of negotiations, tariff was reduced based on consumer classes and the hours of power supply received by an electricity user.
On November 1, 2020, power distribution companies commenced the implementation of the revised electricity tariff that was jointly agreed upon by organised labour and the Nigerian government.
However, two months after implementing the revised tariff, the government has again increased the tariff.
