Yemisi Izuora
THE Consumer Protection Council (CPC) has challenged Electricity Distribution Companies DISCOs) over arbitrary billing and group disconnection of electricity in the country, describing it as gross consumer rights abuse.
Speaking in Abuja on Thursday while receiving top management of DISCOs in his office, the Director General of CPC, Babatunde Irukera said billing and disconnection of consumer’s electricity without consideration for those paying their bills constituted an abuse of consumer rights.
Irukera, while expressing understanding about challenges in the industry, said “there is no excuse for how consumers are treated” noting that, “the key complaints that we receive are arbitrary, unsupported and unreasonable billing; people not being treated with dignity, the complaint resolution process is either lacking or unclear and there’s really no respect for people”.
He said consumers’ complaints have not been primarily about supply, “but about billing for non-existent supply”, stressing that “as a matter of fact, a vast majority of supply complaints are attributed to the fact that you (DISCOs) are asking them to pay for something that was not supplied and the other significant reason is group disconnection”.
According to him, “DISCOs have gotten to a point where no one takes their bills seriously anymore because they are considered outrageous. I think the pressure on metering will not be so bad if the estimated billing was more transparent and reasonable” he noted.
The DG regretted that “what DISCOs are doing is connecting their balance sheets to receivables from consumers, but consumers are connecting what they owe to what they receive”.
He charged the distribution companies to stop the arbitrary billing system. “Connecting balance sheet to an opaque arbitrary metering system is the worst form of abuse, especially for an essential public utility”.
Irukera lamented that group disconnection usually adopted by distribution companies because of the debts owed by some members of the affected groups, unfortunately, disregards and undermines the rights of other consumers in the groups who did not owe.