The National Assembly on Monday has succeeded in convincing the electricity Distribution Companies (DISCOs) from deferring their initial electricity tariffs increase scheduled to begin from July 1st, 2020 to the first quarter of 2021.
This was contained in a statement released late Monday by the Special Adviser to the Senate President on Media and Publicity, Ola Awoniyi.
The statement read, “The President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila and other principal Officers of the two Chambers met at the National Assembly with the Chief Executives of the government electricity regulatory body and DISCOs across the country.
“Also in attendance were the Chairmen of the Committees on Power from the Senate and House of Representatives.
“The National Assembly leaders were emphatic at the meeting that the timing of the planned hike was wrong even though there is the need to introduce a cost reflective tariffs for the power sector to attract the much-needed investment.
“In the course of the meeting, the DISCOs too admitted that they were not well prepared for the planned hike in tariffs even though they so much desired the increase.
“The meeting agreed to defer the planned hike till first quarter of next year while the leadership of the National Assembly promised to meet with President Muhammadu Buhari on the issue.”