FOR the second time in barely a month, the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) has approved an increase in electricity tariff.
This time the hike is by 50 per cent effective January 1, 2021.
In a revised multi-year tariff order (MYTO) signed by the chairman of NERC, Sanusi Garba, on December 30, 2020, the new tariff increase took effect on January 1, 2021, and supersedes the previous order NERC/2028/2020.
In the new Order NERC/225/2020, the commission said it considered the 14.9 per cent inflation rate rise in November 2020, foreign exchange of N379.4/$1 as of December 29, 2020, available generation capacity, US inflation rate of 1.22 per cent and the capital expenditure (CAPEX) of the power firms to raise the tariff.
The revised service-based tariff (SBT) also saw an increase in the rates payable by all classes of electricity users unlike the one of November 2020 that exempted low power getters.
This is effective till June 2021 while a cost-reflective tariff (CRT) expected to raise the new cost higher will be activated from June to December 2021, the NERC Order revealed.
The NERC had in December 2020 notified that it had begun a review for another tariff.
