Business
Over Billing: Abuja DISCO Refunds N50m To Customers
The Nigeria Electricity
Regulatory Commission (NERC) has ordered the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company to refund the sum of N50 million to its customers in the Federal Capital Territory for over-billing them.
Chairman of NERC, Dr Sam Amadi disclosed this while reacting to a query issued the commission by the Senate. The query bordered on fixed charge, estimated billing, epileptic supply and other issues.
Amadi said on Friday that his agency monitored all complaints reported to DISCOs on a monthly basis and carried out analysis on them.
He said the commission had penalised Abuja DISCO for over billing its customers and also ordered it to refund the over billed amount and to also apologise to the customers for wrongful estimation.
He explained that the distribution company had refunded about 32,000 customers so affected with money ranging between N5,000 and N15,000 adding up to the N50 million.
The NERC boss further explained that the commission established the forum’s office made up of representatives of key stakeholders like the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), the consumer protection Council, the Nigeria Society of Engineers and representatives of local civil society organisations.
According to him, DISCOs had been mandated to establish functional customer complaints units to receive and resolve all complaints from customers on electricity supply within their areas of operation.
The forum, he said would give consumers opportunity to seek redress from the non-performing DISCOs in resolving their complaints.
“Presently, NERC has established at least one forum office in all the DISCOs to act as an appellate body in resolving complaints from electricity consumers not satisfactorily resolved by customer complaint units of DISCOs”, he said.