Key Stakeholders Meet PURC On Proposed Tariff Reduction

The Public Utility Regulatory Commission (PURC) is set to meet key stakeholders today – February 12, 2018, over the proposed reduction in electricity tariffs.

The stakeholders expected at today's meeting include the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI).

Today's meeting is among the numerous negotiations to determine the reduction in tariffs for businesses.

This is also in fulfillment of government's plan to reduce the cost of doing business in Ghana by reducing utility tariffs.

The Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori Atta in his presentation of the 2018 budget stated that the tariffs will go down by 13 percent on the average for industrial users of power.

Speaking to Citi Business News ahead of the meeting, the Deputy Director for Policy and Research at the AGI, John Defor lamented to Citi Business News how the uncompetitive rates have affected businesses operating in Ghana.

“Already, our business barometer has indications that are captured several times that the tariffs are so high. In fact if you take the sub-region, we are not competitive at all; we are being charged 21 cents per kilowatts hour while our peers are taking single digits,” he stated.

Mr. Defor was however hopeful of a positive outcome of today's meeting in achieving the intended objectives.

“For now we are only waiting for the next review to see whether the indicators will drive down the tariffs… So we are waiting to see what the outcome of the new tariffs will be.”

Meanwhile the AGI wants regulators in the power sector to clamp down on illegal users of electricity in order to reduce the rising operational losses.

The AGI believes this should afford stakeholders the opportunity to reduce the tariff for genuine users.