The Trade Union Congress has issued a stern warning to the Federal Government asking it to revert to old electricity tariff or face the consequences of its action.
The Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) had announced the tariff hike in its December 2020 minor review of the Multi Year Tariff Order and Minimum Remittance Order obtained by our correspondent in Abuja on Tuesday.
The tariff increase is taking effect 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 Sanusi Garba, the new Chairman of NERC, and it supersedes the previous Order NERC/2028/2020.
Providing reasons for the latest tariff hike, the commission said it considered the 14.9 per cent inflation rate rise in November 2020 and foreign exchange of N379.4/$1 as of December 29, 2020.
Others were available generation capacity, the United States inflation rate of 1.22 per cent and the Capital Expenditure of the power firms before the tariff was raised.
The commission also stated that the new tariff would be effective till June 2021 while a Cost Reflective Tariff would be activated from July to December 2021.
However, the Trade Union Congress reprimanded the Federal Government over the hike in electricity tariffs announced on Tuesday.
It described the decision as ‘wicked’ and ‘another betrayal of trust’ coming in the middle of ongoing negotiations by the FG and the organised labour on the November 1, 2020 hike.
This was contained in a statement by the TUC President, Quadri Olaleye, and the Secretary-General, Musa Lawal, titled, ‘Electricity hike: Another betrayal of trust.’
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The congress wondered “why this government espouses unfriendly policies that are capable of crippling the economy.”
It said many companies which could not pay the previous tariff hikes had either closed shop or relocated to neighbouring countries.
The TUC stated:
Does it mean there is no other way this government can creatively generate revenue? It has become obvious that the outrages from the organised labour and the masses and the series of negotiations we had with the government were just cosmetic and hypocritical.
There is so much deceit and laziness in the system; there is hardly any promise made that they have followed through.
Only yesterday (Monday), we read again that the Academic Staff Union of Universities is withdrawing its members because this same government has reneged on its promises reached a few days ago.
How can the government go-ahead with increase in tariffs again when we have not resolved the one done earlier? This is preposterous, ridiculous and sheer wickedness.
The congress noted that it had become the butt of jokes among Nigerians because it was reluctant to launch an offensive on account of the poor state of the economy.
