Consumers to receive refund for overbilled ECG charges

Government is putting measures in place to ensure electricity consumers who were overbilled by providers are refunded, Deputy Power Minister, John Jinapor has assured.

He said the Ministry has held discussions with management of the ECG to do a full audit of the ECG system to ensure that customers are billed according to payments gazzetted by the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC).

Again, he said the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) and other stakeholders are working around the clock to address the many challenges facing the energy sector.

The assurance by the minister comes on the back of complaints made by consumers across the country that they were being overbilled for using electricity. Some consumers have also complained of the alarming rate at which their electricity meters read on a daily basis.

Speaking issues confronting the power sector, Mr Jinapor said his outfit had set up a taskforce to ensure that persons who bypass, steal and use electricity without paying for its usage are punished accordingly.

“You cannot have a system where you’ve increased tariffs, and one segment of the society is paying and the other segment isn’t. That results in an imbalance,” he lamented.

Mr Jinapor also revealed that the Power Ministry realised an amount of 36 million cedis in a space of seven days through the exercise of the taskforce just last week.

He, therefore, appealed to the public to cooperate with such authorities in the event that they visit their homes or companies to make their checks and investigations.