The Consumer Protection Council and the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission
on Tuesday agreed to enforce the mandatory 60-day order to electricity
distribution companies to either meter or stop billing their customers
under the Credited Advance Payment for Metering Implementation scheme.
Acting Chairman, NERC, Dr. Anthony Akah |
NERC
had, in its recent directive to the companies, directed that any
customer who elected to procure meters under the CAPMI scheme must be
metered within 60 days.
It said any distribution company that
failed to achieve this would lose the power to bill or disconnect
electricity supply to such customers.
The CPC said in a statement on Tuesday that in order to effectively enforce the directive, it and NERC had signed a Memorandum of Understanding that would ensure conducive environment for consumers and investors in the sector.
The Director-General, CPC, Mrs. Dupe
Atoki, said that consumers should not be made to bear the brunt of
non-metering for so long even after making payment.
She said, “Consumers who are paying for
services that they have not fully enjoyed need protection. We understand
that the way the CAPMI system was introduced is to buffer the operators
and to help them in the infrastructural challenge they have by making
consumers to pay upfront.
“If consumers at the end don’t get the
required supply of electricity and their funds are being used to support
infrastructural deficiency, then we wonder how that can rest well with
us. It will, therefore, not be fair for consumers to continue to pay for
meters when the meters are not installed at the prescribed period and
they are being charged arbitrarily.
“I believe that NERC
has come up with a very sound directive that all consumers who have
paid for meters should not be disconnected or billed if the meters have
not been provided.”
The Acting Chairman of NERC, Dr. Anthony Akah, said in the statement that the collaboration with the CPC was a step in the right direction.
Akah noted that NERC
was determined to intensify the enforcement of consumer protection
regulations on metering, billing and the complaints of arbitrary and
estimated billing by customers.
“There shall be concerted efforts aimed
at greatly reducing the incidence of estimated billing and eventually
eliminating it completely. The increasing incidence of vandalism of
electricity infrastructure, stealing of electricity and hostility to
operators are also issues we hope to jointly address,” he added.
Akah pointed out that the commission
would ensure strict adherence to the meter roll-out plan by the Discos
as spelt out in their performance agreements.
by Ifeanyi Onuba and Okechukwu Nnodim
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