Some individuals, groups, and political parties are set to join labour unions to press on the Public Utility and Regulatory Commission (PURC) to reduce the recent tariff increment announced by the commission.
The commission last week announced an increase in electricity and water tariffs by 59.2 percent and 67.2 percent respectively.
However, the announcement has received sharp responses from the Trades Union Congress (TUC) who are demanding not more than 50 percent increment.
“We did not expect any increase in tariffs beyond 50 percent as against the 129 to 400 percent proposed by the utility companies, on condition that the power supply would have stabilized”, a statement signed by the Secretary General, Kofi Asamoah said.
Already, some political parties including the Progressive People’s Party (PPP) and the National Democratic Party (NDP) have urged Ghanaians to kick against the increment.
According to the General Secretary of the Industrial and Commercial workers Union (ICU), Solomon Kotei, “the increment would worsen the plight of Ghanaians who are already reeling under the current energy crisis”.
However, the Director of Public Relations and External Affairs of the PURC, Nana Yaa Jantuah has explained that the factors that influenced the increment included, consumer interest, investor interest, and economic development of the country.
She added that generation mix, fuel mix, availability of the service, growth in demand, power purchase cost (IPP), cedi-to-dollar exchange rate and revenue requirements also played significant roles in determining the increase.
TUCs arguments against an increase
According to the TUC, Ghanaian consumers are already paying heavily for the depreciation of the Ghana Cedi and the high inflation.
The Union maintained that real wages have fallen drastically since 2012 with debates in the media attesting to that fact.
“The people of Ghana still doubt whether these tariff increases are going to solve the “dumsor”, as the utility providers would like us to believe”, the Union said point out that “we expected the implementation of any new tariffs to start next year”.
Unequal match with income
The Union bemoaned what they described as unequal match in increasing utility tariffs to the rate of increase in incomes.
“We are also concerned about the poor macro-economic performance and the technical and operational inefficiencies of the utility companies which have contributed greatly to the frequent hikes in tariffs”, the statement said.
