Hold tariff hikes for 3 months – Chamber of Commerce appeals

The Ghana Chamber of Commerce has appealed to the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) to suspend the immediate implementation of the upward review of tariff hikes in the country.

The PURC has announced billing consumers with the new 11.17% tariffs will begin on July 1, 2019.

Speaking to Francis Abban on the Morning Starr Tuesday, the Chief Executive of the Chamber of Commerce Mark Aboagye said the time between the upward review of tariffs and implementation is too short for industry to adjust.

“The increment has shaken the foundation of most businesses. I think the PURC should gives businesses not less than 3 months to adjust. There are some companies that pay about Ghc 1 million per month as electricity bill. Some even pay more. I think the PURC is not being fair to businesses. 9 days is not enough time to adjust,” he bemoaned.

The PURC has however explained the review was done taking into considerations the various factors prevailing in the economy currently.

“For the tariff review, the exchange rate that we use is 5.05 and you know that this is the kind of exchange rate that we have on the market. The rate of inflation has gone up. The price build up for electricity tariff, you have the forex component and the cedi component.

“For the forex component, you need to adjust when the exchange rate is low otherwise there will be under recovery…so if you look at these two that alone is enough to justify the increase that has just been announced…also the fact that tariff were reduced didn’t mean that tariff were never going to be increased again,” Chairman of the technical committee of the PURC, Ishmael Agyekumhene said.