Govt to absorb one billion cedis in electricity tariff reliefs - Amewu

Mr John Peter Amewu, the Minister of Energy, has said the three months relief that the Government would grant to the 4.8 million electricity customers would cost it one billion Ghana cedis.

In the last Presidential national broadcast on COVID-19, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, announced that the State would, among other interventions, absorb the electricity bills of April, May, and June to relieve citizens of some of the hardships of the COVID-19 crisis.

Consequently, lifeline consumers, (up to 50 kilowatts hours per month consumption) will pay nothing at all, while the other residential, commercial and industrial customers will enjoy a 50 per cent discount, using their 2020 March bill as their benchmark.

This covers the customers of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), Volta River Authority (VRA) and Northern Electricity Distribution Company (NEDCO).

Speaking at the Ministry of Information’s organised media briefing on COVID-19 and related matters in Accra, on Thursday, Mr Amewu explained the lifeline consumers as: “People who use one television set, a tabletop fridge, a fan, and two electric bulbs for a limited time”.

The ECG, he said, had one million meters that fell in the lifeline category, which formed about 24 per cent of the total number of customers.

At the current tariff rates, the government would pay GHC 732 million for the three months for all ECG customers, the Minister explained.

The total cost for NEDCO customers, about 569,000, would translate into GHC 141 million for the three months.

For VRA customers, he said, the total cost for the period would be GHC166.4 million.