ECG to increase electricity tariff

The cost of energy could rise if the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) succeeds in implementing its decision to shoot up its pricing in the coming weeks.

Director in the office of the Managing Director of ECG, Noble Dorwume broke the shocking news after a meeting with the Public Utility Regulatory Commission (PURC) in Tamale.

According to the PURC, the future assessment would be based on overhead costs that affect power generation and distribution, such as inflation.

The request has been referred to the PURC for review, according to Mr Dorwume.

“We have issued an upward assessment based on cost, inflation, and other economic variables.”

Ghana’s inflation rate was 15.7 percent in February, up 1.8 percent from January.

Mr Dorwume further said that the tariff revision would take customer classification into account.

“So it will depend on how PURC looks at it and which group should have a slight upward adjustment and which group should have a slight downward adjustment,” she says, “but they will all offer us revenue that will allow us to run our business properly.”

In October of this year, tariffs were raised by 5.94%. The decision to increase electricity tariff is coming at the time many Ghanaians are complaining of hardships and astronomical hikes in commodities.

Source: africaneditors.com