Some may call it
cheating, while others may see it as smart billing but it is nothing less than
fraud. The system of billing some electricity consumers, otherwise known
as estimated billing, adopted by the Electricity Distribution Companies
(DisCos) in Nigeria, is a clear case of extortion of consumers without metres,
whether prepaid or the old order. Ironically, the DisCos are unconcerned and
unrepentant, instead they are passing the buck concerning metering to
customers. Imagine living in a compound with four three-bedroom flats and while
three metred three flats get billed about N2, 500 each, the remaining one is
slammed N10, 000 estimated bill, just for one month, by Ikeja Electricity
Distribution Company (IKEDC).
Fadeyibi even told his customers at the meeting to ensure that people are not stealing electricity from electric poles or connecting heavy appliances, such as welding machines, to the transformer.
He said: “What you call crazy bill is not
crazy, according to us in Eko Disco. We have an approved methodology for
billing consumers who do not have functional metres. It is what we get from
your transformer monthly that is being shared among the consumers.
“So, if your neighbours are tapping power
daily or you see welding machines nearby and you think it is our responsibility
to hold them, it will reflect in your bills.
“Expose your neighbours who are bypassing
meters or anybody that is tapping supply from our electric poles now. This is
for the benefit of both parties.”
Buck passing, no doubt, and trying to turn
customers to vigilantes, to say the least. And you ask yourself why the firms’
officials that usually embark on legal and illegal disconnections don’t notice
these anomalies and what do they do when they notice these illegal connections.
EKEDC’s spokesman, Godwin Ihemudia, said the
issue of metering customers was ongoing, adding: “Our roll on plans is on
course. We would provide meters to customers district by district, compared to
other DisCos.
“Very soon, the issue of payment of
estimated billing would be a thing of the past.”
His IKEDC counterpart, Felix Ofulue, said
efforts were being made to put an end to the issue of crazy billings of
customers and urged them to exercise patience, stressing that the firm was
working to ensure prompt distribution of meters to its customers.
Officials of the DisCos are beginning to sound
like broken records to customers who bear the brunt of estimated billing, as
DisCos have been repeating the same story lines all too often without action.
In short, many customers believe most of them lack capacity and are only trying
to shield their inadequacies by this narrative.
These firms’ officials, like all Nigerians,
enjoy prepaid billing in the telecommunications industry and it is ironic why
they are reluctant or incapable of replicating the same system in their
operations.
If not for extortion, why would the DisCos
refuse to install prepaid meters for their customers, even when they have
requested for that? The excuse of high cost of sourcing these metres is fast
becoming unacceptable to customers, especially those who are billed based on
estimation and who bear the brunt of DisCos’ inefficiency.
Now that there has been relative stability in
power supply, they want to suffocate customers with estimated bills. In any
case, customers with prepaid meters enjoy steadier supply than those using the
old meters or not at all.
It is daylight robbery to feed power into a
transformer and at the end of the month, remove what is supposedly consumed by
(sometimes a few) metered (either prepaid and old meters) and share the rest
among those you have refused to meter, whether they consume electricity as much
or not.
Take the case of a young couple that travelled
to the wife’s village for her father’s burial for two weeks, leaving no one in
the apartment and putting of almost all electricity-consuming appliances for
the period, mainly to avoid damages due to power surge and high voltage in
their absence, only to be billed N10, 000 for the month, including the two
weeks they were out of their residence.
Whose fault is it that a customer is not metered?
How can a customer be made to pay for others’ sin, inefficiency or
inadequacies? Why should corporate organisations pass buck, rather than live up
to their responsibilities or own up to their shortcomings?
The news, if true, that most, if not all, customers
would soon get prepaid meters, though sounds like another broken record, cannot
be more cheering than now. One only hopes that it doesn’t become another
deception of government and the DisCos to raise and later dash the hope of
customers, like in the past.
The public hearing of the Bill sponsored by
the Majority Leader in the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila,
representing Surulere 1 Federal Constituency, to criminalise estimated billing
by DisCos, cannot be timelier.
The Bill, which passed for Second Reading on April 17, this year and comes up
for public hearing on Tuesday, June 5, aims to criminalise estimated
billing by electric distribution companies and provides for compulsory
installation of prepaid meters to all power consumers in Nigeria and other
related matters and hopes to address issues bordering on the purchase of
prepaid meters for connection and reconnection of customers.
It is to amend Section 94, sub-section (2) of
the Principal Act by creating a new Sub-section (4), which says: “Any person
who performs any act or does anything or refuses, fails and/or neglected to
carry out his lawful duties with intention to contravene or frustrate the
implementation of Sections 68 and 71 of this Act is said to have committed an
offence; and upon conviction shall be liable to 6 (six) months imprisonment or
a fine of N1, 000,000, (One million Naira) or to both such fine and
imprisonment without prejudice to the right of the Commission to cancel or
suspend any licence under this Act.”
Electricity consumers are looking forward to
proper and commensurate billing that should be acceptable to consumers.
*Ijediogor is on the staff of The Guardian.
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