Yemisi Izuora
The Port Harcourt Electricity Distribution Company, PHED, has commenced the refund of money paid by customers for meters through the Credited Advance Programme for Metering Implementation, CAPMI, exercise.
The company said the repayment and crediting of customers include those who enrolled in the CAPMI scheme since January, 2017.
This refund is in line with Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, NERC, directive on the implementation of CAPMI refund, under the harmonized Multi Year Tariff Order, MYTO, 2015 which states that;
The refund due to customers shall be with 12 per cent interest and will be done through a reduction of 100 per cent of the monthly fixed charge component of their electricity bill.
Also, the Disco announced that the repayment period for this scheme shall last for the next three years or as determined by the Commission from time to time.
However, the fixed charge was removed from the bills of customers leaving only energy consumption and value added tax.
The Regulatory body arrived at the removal of the fixed charges after series of consultations with various stakeholders in the electricity industry across the nation.
“To this end, the PHED, in adherence to the NERC’s directive, has started the refund of the total sum paid, by spreading it in 24 months for single phase and 36 months for three phase meters, respectively. This refund shall be through energy consumed” it said in a statement.
It will be recalled that NERC in 2014 adopted the CAPMI scheme to the willing customers with a view to bridging the metering gap in the system, in other to reduce complaints of perceived over billings from those without meters.
Surprisingly, in PHED, about 27,000 customers out of the lot lapped on the opportunity before it finally wound up on November 1st, 2016.