Power minister defends tariff increase, says it will increase power.
The Minister of Power, Works and Housing Babatunde Fashola, on Tuesday in Abuja, defended the increment in tariff saying that it will result to improved power supply.
He spoke after defending the budget of the ministry before the Senate Committee on Power said that investors would pull out if they could not get returns on their investments.
Fashola, assured that no project which was still at its design stage would be included in the 2016 budget for funding.
He said that it is obvious that any project that had not already been designed, will not be achievable even if it is captured in the budget.
He said that the Senate had empowered the National Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) to determine tariff for electricity and as such, the increment was not unlawful.
``Electricity is a product, it is made from raw materials, some of the raw materials are gas, some of the raw materials are power plants they are also related.
``So, the issue of tariff is the single issue of price, when the raw materials of course will go up the price cannot stay the same.
``You may ask why can’t we have more power before the price goes up: I am also a consumer, but we see that investments in power are not where they should be.
``If the recovery price and the income and profit does not make economic sense to the investor, would you do that business if you are the one?
``There are a lot of investors who want to pay a little more than the open market tariff, if we want them to come into the industry we have to allow the new tariff order,” he said.
The Minister said that there were a lot of people producing excess power, who also want to join the national grid if the price is right.
He said that the tariff was necessary as the former government was perhaps afraid to confront Nigerians with the real price of electricity hence the increment in tariff every two years.
Fashola however assured that the new tariff was a ten-year policy that would not be reviewed upwards or downwards except if prices of raw materials went remarkably high or low.
"This tariff order also removes fixed charge, the consumers say they do not want fixed charge: nobody likes fixed charge because they want to pay for what they use.
So it gives the consumer something and it gives the service provider something too so that we can see increments.
Government has bought out the issue of generation of power so people will not go into generation of power if it is not a business from which they can make a recovery and some profit.
The law passed by the National Assembly clearly gives NERC the responsibility and power to give a tariff that enables them to recover their investment and returns on investment.
So nothing unlawful or illegal has happened, one thing we must however begin to embrace is conservation,” he said.
Fashola stressed that even with the increment in tariff, if consumers disciplined themselves to turn off appliances not in use, they may end up spending about the same amount on electricity.
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