The Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) is in the process of computing the necessary figures to announce approved water and electricity tariffs for the period 1st January to 31st March, 2023.
This is in line with the Commission’s mandate.
Quarterly Tariff Adjustment (QTA) policy.
The pending tariff review was announced by the Director of Research and Corporate Affairs of the PURC, Dr. Eric Kofi Obutey on the sidelines of a stakeholder engagement session in Accra on.
Stakeholders present at the meeting have the aim to promote solidarity and camaraderie among members of the inky fraternity after a hard year’s work.
According to Dr. Obutey, the QTA enables the Commission to reflect changes in macroeconomic variables in the operations of utility service providers.
These variables are; the inflation rate, foreign exchange rate and the cost of natural gas, electricity, and water supply.
The QTA also helps in minimising the effect of changes in the macroeconomic and market-driven variables, as well as delays associated with passing on such effects to consumers and utility service providers within the tariff control period.
Dr. Obutey could, however, say whether the yet-to-be-announced tariff will be lower or higher than the current one.
“We are in the process of computing the figures. When we finish, we will submit it to our Board, which will in turn present it to the government, after which the announcement will be made,” he explained.
He stressed that in arriving at the tariff, utmost consideration will be given to ensuring that utility providers stay in business while ensuring that consumers do not suffer.”In all that we are doing, we want to ensure that the utility providers are financially sustainable. We do not want the re-currence of erratic power supply which we refer to in Ghana as ‘dumsor’.
We will also ensure that the interest of the consumer is not compromised,” he explained.
Speaking at the same event, the Exec-utive Secretary of the PURC, Dr. Ishmael Ackah disclosed that the Commission will introduce net metering next year.
Net metering is an arrangement where-by excess generated Renewable Energy are fed into the national grid by contracted customers.
