Tariff increment : Apologise to Ghanaians - Adam Mutawakilu to Akufo-Addo

A Ranking Member of the Mines and Energy Committee of Parliament, Mr Adam Mutawakilu has called on President Akufo-Addo to apologise to Ghanaians for increasing water and electricity tariffs.

According to him, Akufo-Addo painted John Mahama black by deceiving Ghanaians that under President Mahama, rent was lower than electricity.

His comments follow the increment in water and electricity tariffs as announced by the PURC in a statement on Monday, September 30 2019.

Reacting on the latest development by the PURC on Class FM, Mr Mutawakilu questioned the commission's reasons for the increment in tariffs

“How can you give these flimsy reasons for the adjustments? If you take the reasons they gave, rather you should have reductions, not an increase”.

He further indicated that : “President Nana Addo is hypocritical; he never says the truth, he says A and going B. We expect him to apologise to the people of Ghana that he misled them and painted President Mahama black by saying that under President Mahama, rent was lower than electricity.”

The PURC’s statement signed by Mami Dufie Ofori, Executive Secretary said: “Following a review of electricity and water tariffs for the fourth quarter 2019 which is from October – December 2019, the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission wishes to announce for the information of consumers of electricity and water that there has been an upward adjustment in the existing tariffs. The increase is 5.94% for electricity tariffs and 2.22% on water tariffs across board for all customer categories effective October 1, 2019.

“The Automatic Adjustment Formula (AAF) is a tariff mechanism that seeks to track and incorporate movement in key determining factors to reflect the real cost of electricity and water quarterly.
“The following factors were considered in computing the automatic adjustment formula: Ghana Cedi-US dollar exchange rate, inflation, price of crude and natural gas, fuel mix (crude, oil and natural gas, generation mix (hydro and thermal), power purchase cost, electricity cost (a major cost component in water production)”.

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The Commission said it, “however, wishes to restate its commitment to embark on effective tariff monitoring programme aimed at providing the end-user improved quality of service.”