Civil Society Organisation, Consumer, Unity and Trust Society, CUTS International, says any upward adjustment of electricity tariffs in the country, will push businesses away from settling in the country.
Their call follows a request by the Electricity Company of Ghana and the Ghana Water Company Limited for the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission to increase tariffs in the country to enable them rake in more revenue to take care of their operations.
Speaking on The Point of View on Citi TV, Chief Executive Officer of CUTS International, Appiah Kusi Adomako, noted that the business community will struggle if ECG’s request is approved.
“Should PURC succumb to this demand from the utility companies, it will mean that the cost of electricity in Ghana will go so high that most businesses will find Ghana inhabitable to do business. Already we are not competitive. We are only competitive on our list but then if you come to the production side in Ghana, goods produced are so expensive that people even prefer to import goods from Europe and Asia and other countries.”
“If they should allow for the tariff review, I think that private sector businesses would find it very difficult even to compete under the AfCFTA agreement. So, it just goes beyond what the power companies are saying.”
Mr. Kusi Adomako urged ECG to work on resolving the losses it makes instead of requesting an upward review of tariffs.
“Seriously there are a lot of technical losses. All these things are not being addressed, and yet the low hanging companies are always demanding tariff increases and I think that this time, the PURC should tell the energy companies to go back and look at a better way of running their goods,” he said.
“I still think that the regulator, the PURC, should allow these utility companies to go back and fix all the things that can be fixed at their end, collect all revenues that are outstanding before allowing them any increase in tariffs.”
Mr. Adomako however said that, the demand for an increment in tariffs must be thoroughly scrutinized by the PURC and granted based on sound reason.
