By Patricia Dada
The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) on Wednesday said that the Federal Government (FG) paid a total of N135.23 billion to subsidise electricity consumption in the second quarter of 2023.
This was made known in the commission’s Q2, 2023 report pasted on it’s website in Abuja.
NERC said that the N135.2 billion was spent by the federal government to plug revenue generation shortfall in the power sector in the period under review.
It said that this indicated an increase of N99.21 billion, representing 275 percent compared to the N36 billion it paid in the quarter I of 2023,
The report stated that the government incurred a subsidy obligation of N135.23 billion in 2023/Q2, which is substantially higher than the N36.02 billion it incurred in 2023/Q1.
”The government incurred a subsidy obligation of N135.23 billion in 2023/Q2, which is an increase of N99.21 billion 275 per cent compared to the N36.02 billion incurred in 2023/Q1, ”it said.
The commission stated that the subsidy was due to the absence of cost-reflective tariffs across all distribution companies.
It said that the increase recorded in the period was a result of the government’s policy to harmonise exchange rate.
The report said that on the average subsidy obligation incurred by the government per month was N45.08 billion in Q2 2023.