Energy Generators and Distributors Association of Uganda have asked Parliament to approve the proposal by Government to fine people who indulge in illegal power connections  Shs400M or have culprits jailed for 10years in order to curb rampant illegal electricity connections.

The Association made the plea while appearing before Parliament’s Environment and Natural Resources Committee that is scrutinizing the Electricity Amendment Bill 2022.

Section 86 of the Electricity Amendment Bill 2022 seeks to regulate against theft of electricity where a person who taps, makes or causes to be made any connections with overhead, underground or underwater lines or cables.

Government also wants to criminalize actions of tampering with a meter, installs or uses a current reversing transformer, loop connection or other device which interferes with accurate or proper registration, calibration or metering of electric current.

Additionally, the Ministry of Energy also wants individuals who damage or destroy electricity meter apparatus, equipment once found liable to be fined 20,000 currency points equivalent to Shs400M or imprisonment not exceeding 10 years or both.

Thozama Gangi, Chairperson Energy Generators and Distributors Association of Uganda, welcomed the amendment saying it will help reduce power theft and other unlawful acts towards electrical installations.

She however asked parliament to make the penalty more stringent by allowing electricity companies to effect the provision even on cases of suspecting someone of indulging in illegal power connections.

“We propose that this section include a presumption of power theft given the vast and unsupervised nature of the electricity infrastructure and difficulty in catching a power thief or determining exactly when the offence occurred,” explained Gangi.

The proposed comes at the time power distributor Umeme claimed to have lost Shs98b in Jinja Sub-region, between January and March 2021.

John Baptist Nuwamanya, the metering sales manager, said that during the same period, the country lost 191 million units or about 18 per cent of all the energy Umeme procures from Uganda Electricity Transmission Company Limited (UETCL), which translates into a loss of Shs97.7 billion.

Umeme cited Nateete, Banda, Najjanankumbi, Wandegeya, Nakulabye and Jinja while outside or Greater Kampala includes Bombo, Mbale, Masaka and Mityana prominent energy theft spots.