Enugu residents lament over increase in fuel price, electricity tarrif as EEDC commence implementation
A Political Analyst in Enugu state, Chibuike Igwe has lamented over the increase in fuel price calling on the Federal Government to reverse the unfair hike.
Igwe who stated this in an interview with our Correspondent in Enugu on Thurday also lamented increase in the electricity tariff saying the development will bring untold hardship to the people.
According to him, “this is not the best time to increase price of fuel and electricity tartif as people are yet to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic which led to several weeks of lockdown leading to economic hardship.
“With this increament, price of food and other commodities will go up so how do people survive? Some Nigerians have not receive salary since March while others have their salary slashed, so the federal Goverment need to reverse this hike” he said
Also, a trader at Ogbete market in Enugu, Jude Ezeh who frowned against such increase accused the government of not having the interest of the people at heart.
He said “our shops were locked for 2 months during the lock down and even now that we are still yet to recover from our lost, the Goverment is announcing increase in fuel price and electricity tartiff, this is wickedness”.
Meanwhile, the Enugu Electricity Distribution Company (EEDC) says it has commenced implementation of the new service reflective tariff in compliance with the order by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC).
The Head, Corporate Communications of EEDC, Mr Emeka Ezeh, said in a statement on Thursday in Enugu that the implementation of the new tariff had started taking effective from Sept. 1, 2020.Ezeh explained that the new tariff would be a reflection of the service quality and does not apply to all customers, but only to those that enjoy more hours of power supply in the new tariff order, customers are classified into three major clusters, namely: Non-MD, MD-1 and MD-2.In the same vein, five distinctive bands (A, B,C,D and E) has been created to reflect the various service levels and minimum hours of power supply, a situation where a blanket tariff no longer applies to all category of customers.
For instance, customers in “Band A” are to enjoy daily minimum supply of 20 hours, those in “Band B” minimum of 16 hours and “Band C” minimum of 12 hours. Band D” minimum of 8 hours, while those in “Band E” are expected to enjoy minimum daily supply of 4 hours,’’ he said.According to him, the impact of the reviewed tariff will only apply to customers in Bands A, B and C; while the tariff for customers in Bands D and E remains frozen, until their service quality is improved upon.
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It is only then that they will be migrated to the Band that suits their supply availability,’’ the EEDC spokesman said.
He noted that the review was consistent with the outcome of the various stakeholder consultations for extraordinary tariff review application held across Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu and Imo states in February and March this year.
Ezeh said that for post-paid customers, the impact of the new tariff would reflect in their October bill which is for energy consumed in the month of September, while it would impact on prepaid customers as they purchase their token.
The new tariff is expected to improve efficiency in delivering quality service to customers, and will equally ensure the sustenance of the operators within the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI),’’ he added.
