The Organised Labour has vowed to reject any increase in electricity tariff, no matter how little, because of the unstable supply of power in the country.
Officials of the Nigeria Labour Congress
and the Trade Union Congress made this position known on Tuesday, while reacting to the
announcement by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission of a
slight increase in tariff from June 1, 2014.
According to them, any increase in
electricity tariff should only be contemplated when there is stable
power supply across the country.
NERC had on Monday announced an increase in electricity tariff by between N1 and N5 for different cadres of consumers.
The Chairman, NERC, Dr. Sam Amadi, had
told our correspondent that the new tariff would take effect from June 1
as provided for in the Multi-Year Tariff Order, adding that with the
review, most electricity distribution companies would retain the N750
fixed charge.
But reacting to the announcement, the Chairman, NLC, Lagos, Mr. Idowu Adelakun, said the union would resist such a move.
He said the commission’s announcement of
tariff increase was unacceptable and advised NERC to conduct another
review of the tariff structure.
Adelakun said, “Why do people make such
kind of decisions in this country? Power supply is not even regular and
still they are announcing an increase in tariff, no matter how little.
This shows that they are not serious and we are going to reject it in
totality. We are not going to accept it.
“The promise made by the Federal
Government was that within six months that the power sector was handed
over to the new investors, there would be steady supply. And it also
said that if the power firms failed, they might be sanctioned. But it is
now over six months and the situation is even worse than what it used
to be, yet they want to increase tariff.
“We are not going to take that from them.
They should first of all allow power to be stable before effecting any
increase. If power is stable, when you talk of any increase, Nigerians
will be happy to receive it. But when it is not regular, you want to
increase tariff based on what?”
The Lagos Chapter Chairman, TUC, Mr.
Akeem Kazeem, told our correspondent that although the union had not
made its position known to the press, it would not support any increase
in tariff.
He faulted NERC for going ahead to
announce the change in tariff and stressed that many civil servants
earned meagre salaries and should not spend most of their earnings on
electricity bills.
Kazeem said, “Power supply now is nothing
to write home about. You hardly have power and at the end of the day,
they will give you skyrocketed bills. And yet they are still saying
there will be an increase. Now, how do you expect us to manage that? We
are not in support of it and we condemn it.
“We are calling on the management of the
power firms and their regulator to have a rethink, especially when what
we earn as salaries cannot be regarded as take-home pay. To now use
almost half of our salary to pay for electricity will not be in the
interest of the Nigerian worker. They should reverse that decision.”
-Punch
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