SENATE DENIES PROPOSED INCREASE IN ELECTRICITY TARIFFS

Babatunji wusu –
The Senate has requested that the Federal Government rescind its proposal to raise the price of power by removing subsidies.

The parliamentarians have also decided to look into a failed deal that would have improved electricity usage by having local producers construct Prepaid Meters that would have been disseminated across the country.

Senator Aminu lya Abbas (PDP-Adamawa Central) submitted a motion of public significance that included these motions, which were decided upon during Wednesday’s session.

The legislators also concurred that in order to create a long-term fix for the nation’s electricity billing system, the government needed to work with the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC).

The legislators also decided to look into how DISCOs operate in order to find out how metering is currently going and how much they are complying with applicable legal and regulatory frameworks when it comes to providing services, as well as whether the federal government has released funds for widespread pre-paid metering.

The Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, stated that the Senate would look at a two-trillion naira subsidy in order to prevent a recurrence of the gasoline subsidy scenario that is still plaguing the country’s economy.

Subsequent to the resolutions, the Senate Committee on Power was directed to conduct an equal investigation into the 1.3 trillion naira and 1.3 billion dollars that the Ministry of Power owed to gas firms and generating corporations, respectively.