PHCN Must Refund N 378 Billion in Illegal Bills and Charges – Coalition for Social Equality

The Coalition for Social Equality, a NGO geared to promote social justice in the country has quantified the value of illegal charges and bills that PHCN has imposed on its customers over the years – N 378 billion.

The N 378 billion represents the amount PHCN has illegally obtained from its customers under the aegis of “Meter Maintenance Charge”.

The group has written the Minister of Power, Barth Nnaji, seeking compensation for customers for the illegal charges.

An excerpt reads, “We are however appalled that no action has so far been initiated by your office on the question of refund of the sum of N378billion or $2.5 billion dollars wrongly and illegally collected from impoverished Electricity Consumer in the country beginning from 1998 till November 2011.

“It is currently estimated that there are over 4.5 million registered electricity consumers in Nigeria who have continued to pay this illegal charge since its introduction in the late 90s which is only three per cent of the projected population of Nigerians put at 150 million. We have therefore assumed that only three out of every 100 Nigerian receive PHCN bills and pay MMC.”

The minister and Chairman of National Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), Dr. Sam Amadi have faulted the charges, deeming them illegal.