Residential Customers To Get Close To 30% Hike In Tariff If…

By Our Staff Writer

There is strong indication that a row is looming between Executive Mansion and the Liberia Electricity Corporation (LEC) and the national regulator, LERC over a proposal they are pushing for an increase in electricity tariff in the country, less than one year into the Unity Party government of President Joseph Nyuma Boakai.

LERC is the Liberia Electricity Regulatory Commission

Signal of the strong dissatisfaction was voiced out at the weekend by Vice President Jeremiah Koung, when he spoke at a program held at the Ellen Johnson Sirleaf Ministerial Complex in Monrovia’s Congo Town suburb.

VP Koung said when he met President Boakai few days ago, he expressed serious concerned about the proposed increase in electricity tariff in various categories of customers with a 27 percent increase for residential customers.

He said he and the Liberian leader are not happy with such an increase in the cost of electricity at this time.

If the hike in electricity tariff takes effect, it will add to the already growing disenchantment being expressed by ordinary people about the economic hardship and increasingly high cost of living, something Liberians say they expect the “Rescue mission” of Boakai to be easing rather than increasing.

On Monday, October 21, 2024, the LERC announces that the Liberia Electricity Corporation (LEC) had submitted a proposal for new electricity tariffs for the Commission’s approval.

“The proposal is for the tariff period January 1, 2025, to December 31, 2027, and is in accordance with Section 8.1(2) of the 2015 Electricity Law of Liberia which states that “a licensee may not charge a customer any other tariff other than that determined or approved by the Regulator”. This submission comes as the current tariff regime which came into effect on January 1, 2022, is set to expire on December 31, 2024,” said the LERC press release.