Lobbying intensifies at House ahead of budget deliberations

AMMAN – The Lower House and the government are likely to remain at loggerheads over hiking electricity tariffs as a group of MPs is lobbying for a no-confidence vote. 

MP Khaled Hiari told The Jordan Times Monday that he had started collecting signatures from fellow lawmakers for a memo calling for conducting a no-confidence vote if the government insists on increasing power tariffs, noting that 28 deputies had so far joined the bid.

At the beginning of this year, electricity tariffs went up by 15 per cent as part of a planned gradual increase set by the government last year in order to address the losses of the state-owned National Electric Power Company (NEPCO),
which relies on fuel oil in power production. 

The government plan aims at achieving
NEPCO’s cost recovery by 2017. 

Due to falling global oil prices, the House urged the government to freeze the plan, and formed a joint parliamentary panel from the energy and financial committees to negotiate a deal with the executive branch. 

After spending nearly two weeks in talks, the government and the joint committee agreed on slashing the increase in tariffs by half to 7.5 per cent. 

The deal was rejected by the majority of MPs who voted late last month against any hike. The decision is not binding on the government.

Hiari said that MPs have information that the government would continue with its plans to raise tariffs but by 7.5 per cent.  

Acknowledging that the motion is a pre-emptive move in case the government insists on going ahead with hiking tariffs, the lawmaker said 28 deputies have so far signed the memo.

The memo will be submitted to House speaker when the number of signatories reaches at least 50, he said. 

In previous interviews with The Jordan Times over the electricity price issue, several MPs said they would continue to put more pressure on the government to freeze its plan either by using several tools such as a vote of no-confidence or through rejecting the 2015 state budget draft law, expected to be debated in the coming days.