The Federal Government has again suspended the implementation of the new electricity tariffs for one week.
The government had earlier on September 28 postponed the take-off date of the tariffs by two weeks after it held a meeting with the organised labour, which was opposed to the hikes in petroleum and electricity prices.
The latest decision was taken on Sunday during a meeting between the FG team led by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha, and the leadership of the Nigeria Labour Congress and the Trade Union Congress.
The parley which held at the Presidential Villa banquet hall, Abuja, adopted the resolutions of the ad hoc technical committee on the electricity tariffs hike reached on October 8 and also agreed on a work plan for the implementation.
The parley also agreed to distribute one million meters to bridge the metering gap in the country in the first instance.
The distribution is expected to commence this week in furtherance of the Acceleration of National Mass Metering Programme. The programme is expected to distribute a total of 6 million meters to Nigerians free of charge based on the funding by the Central Bank of Nigeria. The cost of the meters will be recovered from the electricity distribution companies.
The meeting also agreed that the meters should be procured through local meter manufacturers and assemblers.
Reading the communique at 11.40 pm, the Minister of Labour, Chris Ngige, said, “The two-week extension for electricity tariffs which expired this week will be extended by another one week.”
The parties agreed to reduce the tariffs by 10 per cent for band A, 10.5 per cent for band B and 31 per cent for band C.