By EVELYNE MUSAMBI
The Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) has announced that electricity consumers will no longer pay the Sh150 monthly fixed charge.
In its first review of electricity tariffs since 2013, the commission said the move to remove fixed charges from the 2018/2019 tariffs will reduce the cost.
“To ensure that there’s equity and consumers pay for power only when they consume, all fixed charges for all consumer categories have been removed. This is meant to reduce the many cost items in the customer bills & simplify understanding of the bills,” ERC wrote in a statement.
NEW TARIFF
The commission said the decision was arrived at after numerous complaints by electricity domestic customers that led to public hearings.
“The overall unit cost of power reduce from Kshs 17.77/KWh in 2017/18 to Kshs 16.64/Kwh 2018/19 representing an overall reduction of costs by 6% over the Tariff Control period,” the commission wrote.
The commission said the new tariff takes effect immediately.
It is still early to tell. We need to try it out and see if it is just cosmetic or their is actaully a decrease in the price. They might cut the fixed charges and increase another hidden fee.
The fixed charge has always been a nuisance charge especially for prepaid consumers.
In the earlier days, KPLC was justified to charge it so as to cover the costs for it’s meter readers and manual mail delivery system.
But in this digital age, what the ferk are they charging prepaid consumers a fixed charge for?
This is definitely a good move in the right direction. But what we don’t know, is how and when KPLC plans to correct the market to continue shafting wanjiku.
With the fuel cost charge that goes directly to IPP’s some with binding contracts running up to the 2030’s, Kenyans are royally and truly ferked.
And to cap it all we pay that on idle capacity. Which means they are being paid and retained on standby without producing any power.
Whoever comes with such contract terms should be rotting in the deepest recesses of Kamiti prison.
Kenyans are very lazy. They follow what journalists report and don’t take time to interrogate things. If you look at those tariffs, electricity has gone up significantly. From 2.5 shilings to 12 shillings per unit? And you say that is a reduction. Fixed of 150 per month is little money compared to the shafting you are going to experience now