Kenya Power and Lighting Company engineers load a transformer into a lorry. Kenya Power has resumed issuing a breakdown of the pre-paid electricity tokens after previously putting a stop to sending detailed bills to consumers.
The move had attracted backlash from consumers who asked for the breakdown as it offered them a chance to analyse their payments.
Under the bills, the pre-paid charges were lumped together and appeared as other charges in payment statements sent to the mobile phones. File image of meter models for tenantsFile Kenya Power pre-paid customers who settled their electricity bills in early November did not get a breakdown of the bills as previously issued.
The breakdown of the bills included details on payment of value-added tax, Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority (EPRA) levy, inflation adjustment, water regulator fees as well as foreign exchange and fuel adjustment surcharges.
The move to stop the breakdown attracted interest from EPRA who revealed that they would seek reasons behind the shift in the billing statement.
Lack of a breakdown made it almost impossible for consumers to establish whether the costing on their bills matched the unit prices for various items like tax, regulatory levies and other surcharges.
Consumers had complained of a possible rights infringement as the Consumer Protection Act 2012 demands that consumers are provided with full information.
EPRA had previously disclosed that the bid by Kenya Power to increase its retail tariff by at least 20% is still under discussion.
This comes after Kenya Power posted the first loss in 17 years of Ksh2.98 Billion in the financial year ended June 2020 despite enjoying a monopoly in the electricity sector.
Kenya Electricity Generating Company (KenGen) is set to hand Kenya Power some competition as it is seeking to sell power directly to consumers once the regulations are ready to be enforced in the Energy Act. Kenya Power workers repair a transformer on the Meru-Makutano road on March 28, 2016. Daily Nation