The Chief Executive Officer of the Consumer Protection Agency, Kofi Kapito, says any possible increment in electricity tariffs would be ill-timed.
Though he acknowledged the need for an increase in tariffs, he has instead urged the Public Utility Regulatory Commission (PURC) to focus on seeking compensation for customers who have lost electrical gadgets due to the recent erratic power supply.
“The timing is very wrong considering what the Ghanaian is going through when it comes to these recent power outages. The outages are the concern of the Ghanaian. I think if the outages are solved or resolved, we can look at these non-tariffs that ECG is proposing,” Mr. Kapito said in a Citi News interview.
“PURC [Public Utilities and Regulatory Commission] should actually look at what has gone on with the recent power outages as to how they will compensate Ghanaians who might have their appliances destroyed,” he added.
The request for an increase in tariffs has come from the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG).
In the midst of the current trend of intermittent power supply, ECG, says it needs an increment in its tariffs to aid its operational activities.
The last increment in electricity tariffs was in October 2019.
The Public Utilities Regulatory Commission oversaw a 5.94% increment in the tariffs.
It used the automatic adjustment formula to determine the real cost of electricity.
Factors like the Ghana Cedi-US dollar exchange rate, inflation, demand forecast and electricity cost accounted for that increment.
The current proposal will only materialise after approval from the Public Utilities and Regulatory Commission.
