Energy Ministry, ECG to help lessen burden on lifeline consumers - Kena

Accra, 16 Feb. '99 -

Mr Fred Ohene Kena, Minister of Mines and Energy, said yesterday that his ministry and the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) will soon carry out an exercise to lessen the heavy tariff burden on electricity consumers living in compound houses. Mr Ohene Kena, said in Accra yesterday that the ECG has already surveyed about 200,000 households in some areas in Accra and Kumasi who will benefit initially from the exercise. He said a study conducted showed that there are 'compound ' houses that are placed in the high consumption bracket, and ''we shall locate those places and find out how many rooms there are and do some averaging to bring down the cost of electricity consumption''. The Minister explained that if there are ten tenants in a room and everyone pays the lifeline rate of 4,000 cedis, the entire bill will amount to only 40,000 cedis instead of punitive tariffs demanded by some landlords which push tariffs into the higher consumption bracket.

"This is an anomaly that the ECG cannot correct other than giving every tenant his or her own metre which is impossible under the present circumstances". Mr Ohene Kena said though the best option is to supply each consumer with a pre-paid metre as pertains in some parts of Accra, it would take the ECG some time before it can satisfy its numerous consumers because it requires a lot of initial capital. ''We have been discussing a way of meeting consumers half way before everyone gets a metre. ''We are trying to use some sort of averaging to bring the cost down. We shall find out how many tenants are in a house and find out exactly how the billing will be done.'' Mr Ohene Kena said, however, that it will not help anyone to disclose the exact number of tenants there are in a household because it will lead to others paying higher tariffs.