Swapo MP Tobie Aupindi has denounced the National Power Utility, Namibia Power Corporation (Nampower) for putting excessive pressure on consumers involved in electricity.
He spoke in Parliament on Thursday during a budget debate he had all night long.
“It is true that significant progress has been achieved through the National Integrated Resources Plan, but it is also true that Nampowar is raping consumers and the country.”
“The biggest challenge that Nampowar has is to make sure that electricity is affordable and reliable. For reliability, Nampowar needs to have basic loading forces in Namibia and Namibia, not just solar.”
Aupindi says the recent filing for a 17.44% tariff increase was primarily caused by a revaluation of Nampower assets.
“Nampower allows a certain percentage of assets and depreciation expenses. If the asset value increases, the depreciation and asset returns increase. As the asset value increases, when the asset value increases, the customer must pay nampower so that they can pay nampower in the repayment of assets and depreciation,” he says.
Aupindi also accused Nampower of keeping the predicted generation from Ruacana understated, calling it an industrial fraud.
He submitted that the government must argue that the forecast revenue from Ruacana in tariff applications should be the same, or at least within 20% of the previous year’s reality.
“Otherwise, if the tariff nampower is modest with the generation from Namibia’s cheapest power source, it will raise the price of electricity. And in reality, nampower will generate more revenue at the expense of consumers,” he said.
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He said, “The last major contributor to the increase in electricity costs is the historic shortage or loss that Nampowar has made over the past few years, and Nampowar is permitted to recover from consumers the following year.
Aupindi also has problems with the decision to put a small default municipality in prepaid, he said, despite Nampower helping to collect revenues.
“Imagine if you prepaid all your businesses and industries, then there will be serious cash flow impacts on large and large businesses because if you put your municipalities on prepaid, you will need to put all your customers in prepaid to protect yourself.”
“Imagine a Namibian brewery that can receive the impact of prepaid and its decision on cash flow. The city of Windhoek was asked to move to prepaid and refused because of its impact on cash flow and industry,” he said.
He asked Nampower to carry out collections rather by cutting off the default customer or improving the engagement of its stakeholders.
“If you imagine how many accounts of the municipalities are redoing accounts for every year, Nampower won’t contribute to these amortization anyway. This is a combination of Voodoo’s economics and thinking. I support vote 15,” he said.
