•Stakeholders disagree over proposed law to stop ‘crazy bills’
Cosmas Omegoh
The recent electricity reform bill, as well as the public hearing on it, which held in Abuja on June 6, appears to have opened new vistas.
House of Representatives Majority Leader, Mr. Femi Gbajabiamila, had initiated a bill seeking an end to the issuance of estimated bills by electricity distribution companies, otherwise known as discos. He wants the exercise to become a criminal act when the bill is passed into law.
According to reports, Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, as well as the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) were said to have opposed the bill. And so did all the discos, under the umbrella of Association of Nigerian Electricity Distributors, (ANED).
Mr. Fashola was quoted as saying: “And I take it that we all know what core mandate is. The core mandate of the discos is to supply energy.
“My view is that let new players be licensed to have the supply of meters as their core mandate to take the load off the discos.”
ANED, on its part, noted: “The estimated billing system should be simplified for the understanding of the consumers and the operators to provide for transparency in the application.
“Legislative effort should be applied to criminalising energy theft and meter bypass and creating electricity special/mobile courts. This will assist in catalysing the desired large-scale metering within the sector.”
Many believe that when the bill becomes law, it will change the equation in the country’s power sector and probably usher in a new lease of life to millions of electricity consumers.
Over the years, Nigerians have been groaning under the weight of estimated bills, designated as ‘crazy bills’ imposed on them by the discos. Everyone who has been paying high electricity tariffs is upbeat that any legislation compelling the discos to begin to charge the right amount of money for electricity consumed by customers would be the beginning of the change in the electricity sub-sector.
In his comments, Prof. Yemi Oke, an energy law expert, reportedly explained that estimated billing occurs when a customer does not have a meter. He, however, added: “Generally, no electricity distribution company (disco) makes estimated billing its default billing system.”
It is this default-billing regime that Gbajabiamila wants toppled through the collaborative effort of Nigerians
He was unhappy that estimated billing method was one huge burden that electricity consumers have had to bear for too long.
The lawmaker who represents Surulere 1 Federal Constituency in Lagos, said of the bill: “It criminalise estimated billings by electricity distribution companies and makes provision for compulsory installation of pre-paid meters to all power consumers in Nigeria and other related matters. It will address challenges arising from estimated billings and non-installation of pre-paid meters.”
He proposed that when the bill becomes law, anyone convicted should be liable to six months imprisonment or a fine of N1,000,000 or both.
He explained that his effort was inspired by the flood of complaints triggered by Nigerians against various electricity distribution firms. He was optimistic that when the bill becomes law, it would free Nigerians from the vices of the discos.
Looking back, since the days of the Nigerian Electric Supply Company (NESCO), electricity-supply challenges in the country have refused to go away. It was that premier power company that transformed to the defunct Electricity Corporation of Nigeria (ECN) in 1951. When the latter became the National Electricity Power Authority (NEPA), things still didn’t change. Everything remained the same even up to the time NEPA became Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN).
With many discos created, their operators had persisted in generating estimated bills. Everything said and done to change that old order has been futile, with the discos standing their grounds and refusing to issue prepaid meters to millions of electricity consumers waiting to pay for them.
Not even the establishment of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) in 2005 by the Chief Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration as part of his Power Sector Reform Act could checkmate the estimated billing system.
Among NERC’s many responsibilities is to use civil penalties and other means to fight energy organisations and individuals who violate its rules. It is supposed to outline the rights and responsibilities of both electricity providers and consumers as a way of avoiding friction between them.
NERC says that electricity consumers “have a right to properly-installed and functional meters. All customers have a right to transparent electricity billing.” It warned that all un-metered customers should be issued with electricity bills strictly based on NERC’s estimated billing methodology. It also stipulates that all customers have a right to refund when overbilled and to file complaints and be assured of a prompt investigation of the complaints.
“Where a complaint is not satisfactorily addressed, customers have a right to escalate the issue to the NERC Forum office within the coverage area of the disco.”
It asserts that it is the customer’s right to contest any electricity bill, adding that “any un-metered customer who is disputing his or her estimated bill has the right not to pay the disputed bill, but pay only the last undisputed bill as the contested bill goes through the dispute resolution process of NERC.”
However, a representative of the NERC at the House Committee public hearing in Abuja was quoted to have kicked against the power bill. “The law needs to be amended,” he admitted. “But this is not the amendment we need. Criminalising lack of metering is not the way out now.”
In his assessment of the bill, Prof Oke had noted: “Crazy billing is not and will not be acceptable now or any other day. However, I would suggest that the challenges of estimated billing are best addressed through the prism of a transparent, hard-nosed and unbiased assessment of the challenges and methodologies that either exist or can be devised to address the emotionally-charged issue of crazy billing.”
Expectedly, many Nigerians have been expressing anger and frustrations at the hands of the discos, while at the same time, affirming their support for the bill. In their opinion, the Gbajabiamila move was the right one to free many downtrodden Nigerians from the alleged oppressive grip of the discos.
Kingsley Essom, in his comments, accused the discos of using the estimated billing system to fleece their customers. He regretted that they make more money with this estimated bills and therefore do not care about providing customers with pre-paired meter.
“This is just one bill a lot of Nigerians can’t wait to see passed into law. The level of extortion by these distribution companies is out of this world. I pay between N15,000 and N20,000 every month.”
In like manner, another electricity consumer, Sikiru Olusesi Azeez, said: “What we really need are the pre-paid meters. We believe they could, to a large extent, take many of us out of the slave camps of those who bought our national assets and use it to enslave us.”
Another consumer Paul Omoruyi, just like Ugo Obioha, also bemoaned the antics of the discos.
“This is the biggest scam ever,” he said.
Thomas Abidemi, an electricity consumer, while applauding the Gbajabiamila bill, noted: “This is the type of bill we want. Let us support it till it is passed into law. It means no more free money for electricity distribution companies.”
Another consumer, Henry Junior, described the bill as long overdue. “The pain and suffering the estimated billing system is meting out to Nigerians is underestimated. Estimated electricity billing has become a daylight extortion of the poorest amongst us who aren’t privileged to have meters. The figures keep getting outrageous by the day,” he said.