ASHANTI RESIDENTS REJECT PROPOSALS FOR UTILITY TARIFF INCREASES

Dr. Emmanuel Annag-Chmn of PURC

                   Participants line up to ask questions

Residents in the Ashanti region have rejected proposals by the four public utility providers for upward review of their respective tariffs.

At a regional stakeholders consultative forum held in Kumasi, the residents also made  a strong case why the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission, PURC should not entertain the new proposals with the major reasons being that previous tariffs increases have not yet resulted 

in any significant positive changes in the services being provided by the utility companies. 

Additionally, the residents said they are yet to come to terms with why they continually pay more for the electricity and water they consume but their income levels have either remained unchanged or in certain cases, reduced due to the poor quality of service being rendered by the service providers.

The forum is the second in the series of a nation-wide consultative for a being organized by the PURC following requests by the Volta River Authority, V.R.A., Ghana Grid Company, GridCo, Electricity Company of Ghana, E.C.G. and the Ghana Water Company Limited, G.W.C.L. 

The V.R.A., GridCo and E.C.G. altogether have requested the PURC to adjust their tariffs from the present amount of 44 Pesewas to One Ghana Cedi while the GW.C.L. has appealed for an upward review of its tariff from One Ghana Cedi 78 Pesewas to four Ghana Cedis. In all these cases, the utility service providers are asking for more than one hundred percent adjustment. 

At the forum, officials of all the companies made power point presentations and claimed that they last had tariff increases two years ago.

 They then explained to the participants what they have done with the moneys accrued during the period, their operational challenges and what they intend to apply the funds to accrue from the increases for.

 For instance, the Officer in charge of Tariffs at the E.C.G., Ebenezer Baiden said the company applied 20 million Ghana Cedis of its funds to provide the Ashanti region with its Second Bulk Supply Point at Anwomaso in Kumasi while eight new Sub-stations plus many Customer Call Centres were provided. 

He said about 400 thousand new customers are added to the national grid annually coupled with many challenges that are threatening the continuous operation of the company. 

On his part, Nana Yaw Barima Barnie of the G.W.C.L. said the company is reeling under serious operational challenges with the high cost of raw water purification and power being the major issues. 

Nana Barnie disclosed that since the last tariff increment for the company in 2013, it has spent 768 million Dollars to undertake various projects towards expansion of its coverage and improvement in the quality of the service delivery. The company therefore urgently require tariff review to remain in operation. 

However, the participants who included traditional leaders, members of the A.G.I. and small and medium scale entrepreneurs, complained bitterly about over billing, wrongful billing poor quality of service, too much tariff increases, low incomes among other issue as the reasons why they cannot accept any new tariffs adjustment. 

The Chairman of the PURC, Dr. Emmanuel Annang assured the participants that the Commission is collating issues raised at all the public for a to be factored into the final decision on whether or not to approve the proposals for the tariffs review.