Ewura gives Tanesco 4-day ultimatum

The Tanzania Electric Supply Company Ltd (Tanesco) has been given four days to explain why it recently announced plans to hike power connection charges countrywide without the consent of the Energy and Water Regulatory Authority (Ewura).

The authority, which oversees the affairs of the country?s energy and water sectors, says it has failed to understand why Tanesco decided to skip it on such a sensitive matter.

The move comes barely two days after the Government told the National Assembly currently in routine session in Dodoma that it was wrong for the power supply firm to revise the power connection service charge without Ewura's consent.

Ewura Director General Haruna Masebu told The Guardian yesterday that Tanesco has no mandate whatsoever to announce new power tariffs without the consent of the authority.

He explained that the power supply firm had sent Ewura an application seeking to have its tariffs reviewed "but the letter did not include the element of power connection costs".

``I wonder why Tanesco is doing this. We are the only ones empowered by law to authorise such a plan and set reasonable cost services,`` noted the Ewura chief.

Headded: "Had they sought our permission so that they revise their power connection services, we would have sat with them to see what to do to make sure that the changes would not needlessly harm wananchi.

However, since they have not sought our permission, we're giving them four days to tell us what made them revise the said costs unilaterally."

Masebu said Tanesco would have to come up with a convincing explanation before any action is taken against them "because they also have the right to defend themselves in connection with what they have done".

"We have received an avalanche of complaints from the people on the higher costs envisaged. We have sent them (Tanesco) a letter seeking their explanation but they haven`t replied to it yet," he explained.

Tanesco`s Public Relations Manager, Daniel Mshana, said when asked to respond to the Ewura ultimatum that he had no comment but promised that they would issue an official statement on the matter later. He would not say when that would be.

The Government on Monday quashed Tanesco`s unilateral decision to hike power service connection charges, saying that was possible only with Ewura`s approval.

Energy and Minerals deputy minister William Ngeleja told Parliament on Monday that Tanesco was incompetent to revise charges for its services without studying the actual amount of money spent on each particular service and without getting permission from Ewura.

The power supply company last hiked service connection fees by more than 100 per cent, leading to a nationwide outcry, and hence the current intervention by Ewura and the Government.

The new connection charges Tanesco had planned to take effect from mid this month range between 563,271/- and 3.78m/- for consumers using pre-paid meters, popularly known as LUKU, and between 497,482/- and 2.4m/- for ordinary meters.