VRA still wants tariffs increased

The Volta River Authority (VRA) has called for an increase in tariffs to prevent the collapse of the authority.

The company says it has already spent GH¢300 million out of over GH¢500 million owed it by government and private institutions to buy crude oil to run its operations.

According to the authority, the VRA would collapse in a matter of months if it continues to depend on the remainder of the debts to run its operations.

Kweku Awotwi, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of VRA, explaining the current situation his outfit was facing and the reason for the tariff increase to journalists, said VRA would also have to look for money to carry out cost of maintenance and salaries, among other things, if the situation should persist.

Over the past months, VRA has called for an upward review of utility tariffs but these have been greeted with stern protest by the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC), which argues that the utility companies should go through the appropriate processes.

Mr Awotwi stated that even if VRA should collect all its debt that could only solve the problem temporarily.

He said VRA needs a sustainable mechanism to help the utility companies to run their businesses because over the last nine months, Ghana has been going through a load shedding period.

A lot of individuals and organisations have acquired very expensive generators at over three or four times what they would have been made to pay for utilizing power from VRA.

Chairman of Parliament’s Select Committee on Energy, Dr. Kwabena Donkor, recently warned that the country could soon be plunged into total darkness if immediate steps were not taken to address the financial crisis facing VRA and other power producers.

He called on Ghanaians to brace themselves to pay realistic tariffs since independent power producers were not willing to support the current power generation due to the poor tariff regime.

“We are currently buying power at four cents per kilowatt hour, generation cost averages about 8 to 10 cents per kilowatt hour, and when we use light crude oil then is even higher. And yet since 2011 tariffs have not been adjusted; anytime the idea of tariffs is raised, the people raise their voices no, no, no. We are virtually vandalizing our own assets.”