IMF did not ask us to bring back quarterly adjustments, they only asked for consistency – PURC

The Executive Secretary of the Public Utilities and Regulatory Commission, Dr Ishmael Ackah, has noted that the quarterly adjustments being done by the Commission did not come from the International Monetary Fund as part of the conditions to secure the $3 billion loan.

According to him, these adjustments were already existing except that they were not being consistently implemented.

Therefore, the IMF has instructed that the commission becomes consistent and ensure that it charges the reviewed rates

“We used to have what was called automatic adjustment but now it is called quarterly adjustment.

“The IMF is not asking us to bring the quarterly adjustment back, no. We have it and it’s published on our website. But what they are saying is that in order not to build debt in the sector, PURC should be consistent in implementing it, so that if there are any financial gaps when we implement it, at least it helps to pay, and we won’t go into 2025 saying energy sector debt is this, and government may have to introduce taxes and so many other things,” he told JoyNews.

“Consistency helps to reduce the debt,” he added.

The Executive Secretary emphasised that even though IMF conditionalities are present, it is taking into consideration the welfare of Ghanaians.

“IMF is in town but look at June, we should have done 27% but the Board decided that that will be too much so why don’t we take 450 million out of the 27% that brought the tariff to 18% and that was what we adjusted with.

“So yes, the IMF is there, the World Bank is there but we also looked at the welfare of the Ghanaian. Yes, we don’t have to build debt, but we can’t also kill Ghanaians, so the IMF is a factor but we made the decision even before that,” Dr. Ackah said.

SSD/NOQ

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