People involved in the theft of electricity risk 10 years’ imprisonment and a fine of sh400m (20,000 currency points) or both on conviction.

The tough penalties are contained in the Electricity (Amendment) Bill 2022, currently before the parliamentary committee on natural resources.

According to section 86 of the Bill, a person who taps or makes any connection with overhead, underground or underwater lines or cables or service wires or service facilities of a licensee, commits an offence.

The offence is also committed when a person tampers with a meter, installs or uses a current reversing transformer, loop connection or other device or method which interferes with accurate or proper registration, calibration or metering of electric current.

It is also an offence when a person damages an electricity meter, apparatus, equipment or wire or causes or allows any of them to be so damaged or destroyed as to interfere with the proper or accurate metering of electricity to obstruct, consume or use electricity.

“A person who abstracts, consumes or illegally uses electricity commits an offence and is liable, on conviction, to a fine not exceeding twenty thousand currency (20,000) points or imprisonment not exceeding 10 years or both,” reads the Bill.

The Bill further states that where the electricity abstracted, consumed or used in an offence under subsection (1), does not exceed 10 kilowatts, the convicted person shall, in addition to a penalty imposed under section (1), be liable to pay 10 times the cost of the abstracted, used or consumed load calculated at the prevailing tariff.

According to the Bill, where it exceeds 10 kilowatts, the convicted person shall, in addition to a penalty imposed under subsection (1), be liable to pay 20 times the cost of the abstracted, used or consumed load calculated at the prevailing tariff.

Section 89 of the Bill also provides that a person convicted of an offence under the amendment, for which no penalty is expressly provided, shall, on conviction, be liable to a fine not exceeding fifty thousand currency points or imprisonment not exceeding 12 years or both.

Power theft

On Tuesday, the Energy Generators and Distributors Association of Uganda (EGADAU) appeared before Parliament’s environment and natural resources committee and supported the proposals in the Bill.

“This is a welcome proposed amendment. This will help reduce power thefts and other unlawful acts towards electricity installations,” Thozama Gangi, the managing director Eskom Uganda Limited, and chairperson EGADAU, said.

The energy generators and distributors included Eskom Uganda limited, Bujagali Energy Limited, Umeme Limited, Kakira Sugar Limited, Kinyara Gugar Works and WENRECO, among others.

The power dealers, however, proposed that the section includes a presumption of power theft, given the vast and unsupervised nature of the electricity infrastructure and the difficulty in catching a power thief or determining exactly when the offence occurred.

Power tariffs

The power distributors also warned against the proposed increase in power tariff levy, which they said would greatly affect the final consumer.

The principal Act is amended in section 22 by increasing the levy of revenue received from generated electricity to 0.7% from the current 0.3% levy.

“The proposed increase to 0.7%, from 0.3%, is over 150%, which will have an effect on the tariff charges on the end-user,” Gangi said.

The MPs, however, defended the increase in the levy, saying the Electricity Regulatory Authority is underfunded, thus the need to increase the levy.