The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Tariffs

  • NCAA: airlines’ tariffs have been liberalised

    NCAA: airlines’ tariffs have been liberalised

    The Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) yesterday said airlines’ tariffs have been fully liberalised.

    The affected services include fares, rates, add-on charges or terms and conditions of service.

    A statement by the General Manager, Public Relations of NCAA, Mr Sam Adurogboye, said this was to clarify reports in the media that the NCAA authorised airlines to increase their fares.

    According to the statement, air fares and sundry charges were statutorily deregulated and subjected to market forces.

    “However, all air carriers or their agents shall file, with the authority, a tariff for that service showing all rates, fares and add-on charges.

    “These include the terms and conditions of free and reduced rate transportation for that service, as specified in Part 18.14.1.1 of the Nigeria Civil Aviation Regulations (Nig.CARs).

    “They shall obtain approval from the authority to introduce and or increase add-on charges or surcharges, such as fuel, Internet booking, insurance, security and similar surcharges, prior to implementation,” it said.

    The statement said the section also requires all tariffs to be filed at least seven days before the rates come into effect, except in the case of matching an existing rate for which no prior notification was required.

    “The NCAA will, therefore, approve the fares accordingly. Prior to the approval, all fares filed with the authority are subjected to Breakeven Analysis and this continues intermittently.

    “This analysis is to curb anti-competitive pricing among airlines and to ensure that fares are not too low as to impact on safety arising from inability to carry out prerequisite maintenance on their aircraft.

    “On the other hand, NCAA will similarly intervene if the fares are too high to avoid overpricing that will deny the passengers access to air transportation,” it said.

  • The politics of electricity tariffs

    SIR: It is unfortunate and mischievous for the unions in the power sector to vent their spleen on the Distribution Companies (Discos) as the culprit for the poor electricity supply. The facts as the public  now knows is  that while  the Discos  can be taken  to  task on slow metering and  use  of  estimates  the same cannot be done on the main  issue  of  lack of  electricity and the existing poor  power  supply. The reason is that the Discos do not exist in a vacuum but are at the receiving end of a value chain in electricity generation and transmission. It follows therefore and therefrom that if the Discos do not  have kilowatts of electricity transmitted to them for distribution, their distribution capacity is denuded if not nonexistent. So how  come the power industry trade unions, the protector of workers’ rights, are deliberately portraying the Discos as exploiting the Nigerian masses with the new tariffs and  equating that with the highly explosive fuel price increase for which the workers union have called Nigerians out on strike, albeit unsuccessfully? The answer is obvious; Nigerians as I said before now know better and will not be led by the nose again by mischievous trade unions in any industry.

    Nigerians know that the discos  are owned by Nigerian investors  who bought them during the privatization exercise with their hard-earned money and that the distribution function in electricity is capital intensive and highly expensive  to deliver. They know that if the Discos deliver, our economy will rise from its present dormant and  comatose state and Nigerians will  have a better life. Nigerians also  know that electricity distribution is technology-driven and it will take  some time for those who have invested in it particularly the discos  to make any profit. We also know that as  with the  high prices  which  ushered in telecommunications when GSM phones  came in, the  high tariffs in electricity  already approved for the Discos by the Nigerian Electricity  Regulatory  Commission will also come down for  our overall enjoyment and general  satisfactory consumption of  electricity.

    It is therefore unnecessary for the trade unions, in their agitation for workers’ rights and benefits to  make the discos and the tariffs approved for them the scape goats  for poor electricity supply when Nigerians know the source of that. That  is definitely misleading and more  unpatriotic than the misleading  picture of exploitation that the unions have painted of the Discos on the new tariffs. It is like giving the dog a bad name in order to hang it and that is not what  the Discos or the Nigerian electricity consumers deserve especially  now  that Nigerians  are calling on government to stop vandalisation  of pipelines.

    The unions should channel their  efforts at making Nigerians have  electricity by asking government  to galvanise its power generation and transmission capabilities to  make the Discos perform and deliver. That way, Nigerians will  rally round when trade  unions call  them out on strike because they will  see that the unions know what they are saying especially on new electricity tariffs as well as the real reasons for poor electricity supply.

     

    • Sony Anaeto,

    Port Harcourt, Rivers State.

  • Electricity Tariffs reduction as Greek gift

    IR: President Goodluck Jonathan’s desperation knows no bounds. How can a government reduce electricity tariffs for private companies’ services or is it a lie that the electricity sector has been privatised? What an election gimmick!

    Recently NERC told Nigerians that electricity tariffs would be increased

    from June 2015 because of the free fall of the naira that is not commensurate with the current economic reality. What informed this deceitful move from the federal government?

    It is an indisputable truth that Nigerians all over the nation are crying out and complaining bitterly about high tariff for a nonexistent service through the supply of power by these private electricity distribution companies despite the purported trillions of naira expended by the government, which has rather turned Nigeria into one huge ball of darkness.

    One is aware that because of the clamour for change, this government

    in misreading the mood of the nation came up with fake palliatives including reduction in the pump price per litre of petrol from N97 to N87. But the reality of the situation is that except in Lagos and Abuja, in most other states, the pump price per litre of petrol is above N100 and for some weeks now, fuel queues resurfaced again; so who is fooling who?

    Nigerians should not, as the general elections draw nearer, fall for Greek gift because they don’t last long.

     

    • Nel-jumi,