The Federal Government has again increased the electricity tariff payable by power consumers across the country.

Approval for the hike in tariff was given by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission , as the increase which varies , based on different consumer classes , took effect from January 1 , 2021 .

The NERC announced the tariff hike in its December 2020 minor review of the Multi – Year Tariff Order and Minimum Remittance Order obtained by our correspondent in Abuja .

The tariff increase is taking effect just two months after the government through NERC implemented a hike in November 2020 , which saw widespread opposition .

The MYTO order containing the latest tariff hike , Order NERC / 225 /2020 , was signed by the new Chairman of NERC , Sanusi Garba , and it supersedes the previous Order NERC / 2028 /2020 .

Providing reasons for the latest tariff hike , the commission said it considered the 14 . 9 per cent inflation rate rise in November 2020 and foreign exchange of N379 . 4 /$ 1 as of December 29 , 2020 .

Others were available generation capacity , the United States inflation rate of 1 . 22 per cent and the Capital Expenditure of the power firms before the tariff was raised .

Findings showed that the revised Service – Based Tariff saw an increase in the rates payable by the various classes of electricity users unlike the one of November 2020 , that exempted low electricity consumers .

The commission also stated that the new tariff would be effective till June 2021 while a Cost Reflective Tariff would be activated from June to December 2021 .

Punch