Pensioners want tariffs hike stopped

Some pensioners in Ashanti, have appealed to the government to act quickly to reverse the recent hike in utility tariffs, which they say would only worsen the plight of the suffering majority.

They insist that the high increases in water and electricity charges, combined with the upward adjustment in fuel prices would make the economic situation of the people unbearable.

Mr Solomon Adu-Gyamfi, a retired educationist, told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) on Wednesday, that they would find it difficult to survive given the meager monthly pension paid to them.

Some of them receive as low as GH¢100.00 and he wondered how such retirees could afford the astronomical increases.

“What they are asking us to pay is simply beyond our means, pure and simple”, he said in a shaky voice.

Mr John Wiafe-Akenten, a pensioner and assembly member, said increases in fuel and utility charges must come with corresponding adjustment in wages, salaries and pensions.

Anything short of this, he said, would be completely unacceptable and unjustified.