BY YINKA KOLAWOLE

…As official asks customers to pay N25,000 for pre-paid meter
As the new tariff regime by the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) commences, customers have protested arbitrary increase in their electricity bill for the month of June 2012.

The customers are also complaining that they are being asked to pay N25,000 for a pre-paid meter, as a way of avoiding the arbitrary charges, contrary to government announcement of providing the meters free.

Residents of Jakande Estate in Mile Two, Amuwo Odofin Local Government of Lagos State protested on Tuesday, July 11, 2012, when they stormed the PHCN office complaining of unwarranted hike in their bills, ranging from N7,000 to N11,000 for those who used to receive average monthly bills of about N2,000. This represents an increase of more than 300 percent.

Prepaid meters

Investigations revealed that apart from the tariff which has been increased from N7.30 to N12.45 per unit of consumption for residential rate (R2), the monthly energy consumption was arbitrarily increased for all the affected persons.

For instance, a customer, Mr. A. Ganiyu whose average energy consumption over the past six months has been in the region of 200 units, was credited with about 600 units of energy consumption for the month of June. This is despite the fact that there was no noticeable improvement in power supply during the month over the previous months.

This same trend was discovered in the bills of all the protesters who spoke with Vanguard on the matter. It took the intervention of some officials of the Residential Association of the estate to calm the nerves of the protesters, when they asked them to pay the amount they used to pay before pending the resolution of the matter.

When Vanguard visited the office of the Marketing Manager of the PHCN Undertaking Office in Mile 2, Mr. Ogunshile, he was explaining the situation to some aggrieved customers. According to him, they were also in the dark on the development as the billing was done from Abuja.

He said they have been inundated with complaints from customers since the bills were distributed, adding that they are filing their reports back to Abuja, with the hope of a resolution. He however noted that if the higher authorities are adamant at maintaining the charges, there is nothing they can do at their level but to insist that the customers continue to pay the arbitrary charges.

The PHCN official further tried to explain the technicalities of the new tariff structure, noting that it is in two parts – tariff increase and tariff change. According to him, the tariff increase is reflected in the change from N7.30 to N12.45, while tariff change affects consumption. He also said that those affected by the bogus increase are people with faulty meters.

He then advised customers to procure a pre-paid meter by paying N25,000, promising that within one month the meter will be made available. When reminded that government promised to provide the pre-paid meters free of charge only to pay for installation charges, he said that may be long in coming.

When Vanguard visited the office of the Senior Manager, Public Affairs of the Oshodi District of PHCN, Mrs Haastrup, for official response to the matter, she was said not to be in the office.