FCCPC says Discos make regulatory function difficult

 
Federal Consumer and Protection Commission (FCCPC) has said that Distribution Companies in the country are making regulatory functions difficult for its regulator-Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) with poor handling of consumer related issues.
Babatunde Irukera, the director general of FCCPC made this remark at a NERC town hall meeting held in Abuja on Thursday which had Northern Discos of Abuja, Jos, Kaduna and Kano in attendance.
“My experience working with NERC in the run off to the tariff review and billing cap order is that it is really difficult to regulate the Discos. Difficult to regulate in the sense that all the focus is on their problems. Quite frankly, when that is the approach, I don’t know how much progress we can make.”Irukera said.
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Irukera posited that available statistics revealed that the index of dissatisfaction is still extremely high on the part of consumers with regard to arbitrary billing concerns and discos responsiveness to metering issues.
“It is very difficult to hold consumers accountable when Discos are not held accountable .This makes regulator function difficult for us from the regulatory standpoint.”
Irukera said: “It is very difficult to say to the people that energy theft is against the law, when arbitrary billing is supposed to be legitimate. You are taking from people what you’ve not given to them, so how do you take what you haven’t given to the consumers.
“How would a tariff review look like in an environment, where half of the consumers are not metered, and more than half pay for estimate billing and in a regime where the Discos resist a cap under an estimated billing.” Irukera queried.
Moses Arigu, the commissioner who heads consumer affairs at the commission said the regulator would continuously support interactions and consultations that ensure consumer’s needs are met and in prompt time.
Credit: businessday.ng