Minority comment on tariff cuts insulting - PURC Committee

Ishmael Ejekumhene, Chair of the Technical Committee for the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC), has indicated that members of the committee feel insulted by the Minority in parliament over their comments on the reduction in electricity tariffs.

According to him, due diligence was done to arrive at the decision to reduce the tariffs.

Beginning 1 April, electricity consumers, both residential and commercial, are expected to enjoy between 10% and 30% reduction.

The PURC, which announced the reduction early this month, said residential customers will now enjoy 17.5% reduction, whilst non-residential customers will enjoy 30% reduction.

The mines are also entitled to 10% reduction, with special load tariff customers also enjoying 25% reduction.

But the Minority in Parliament has cautioned that there will be negative repercussions for the power sector.

The Minority spokesperson on Energy, Adam Mutawakilu, said Ghanaians are likely to experience erratic power supply and general operational challenges on account of the tariff reduction.

He said they were disappointed after the PURC failed to respond to all the legitimate questions on their minds as members of the Energy committee of Parliament.

“In their statement, they indicated that the capacity for AMERI has been reduced but when you asked them whether they had renegotiated the AMERI agreement, they wouldn’t respond; they said transmission losses had been reduced from four percent to 3.8 percent and when you asked how they did that they won’t respond,” Mutawakilu told Joy Fm

But reacting to this in an interview with Chief Jerry Forson, host of Ghana Yensom on Accra 100.5FM on Friday, 16 March, Mr Ejekumhene, who is also the Executive Director for the Kumasi Institute of Technology (KITE), said: “We did due diligence before arriving at the decision to reduce the tariffs by that margin.”

He added: “We feel insulted by the minority with their claims that the reduction in the electricity tariffs will result in hardship for the power sector. It is as if the committee members are people who don’t know whatever they are doing. The PURC will release a statement to respond to their claims.

"It is unfair that we are invited to talk about something which is not true. Why do we do that to ourselves and pollute the atmosphere and waste everybody's time?"