Utility tariff increment will overburden Ghanaians – K.T.Hammond
A former Deputy Minister of energy under the Kufuor administration, Kobina Tahir Hammond says calls for an increase in the prices of utility by service providers in the country will burden Ghanaians. Utility providers have advocated a 100 percent increase in the prices of utility citing the continuous depreciation of the Ghana cedi as the basis for their claim. The propositions were made at a public forum organized by the Public Utility and Regulatory Commission (PURC) in Kumasi last Tuesday.
But speaking on The Big Issue, the Member of Parliament for Adansi Asokwa and minority spokesperson on energy predicted of extreme hardship on the already burdened Ghanaians if the proposals are approved.
“…I do not advocate that the poor people of Ghana should be squeezed the way it seems to be happening…” he said. The former energy minister however cited the huge debts owed especially by the government as accounting for the challenges facing the various providers. “We do know that ECG is owed about 1.2 billion cedis, VRA is owed about 1.4 billion, VRA pays for Asogli’s power gas consumption, Asogli is not able to pay VRA quickly so we have that snowball effect and government is not paying ECG, “…Indeed of the 1.2 billion, government’s indebtedness may be about 70 percent, you have these figures outstanding and you are going to talk about tariffs?” he queried. K.T. Hammond also disagreed with assertions that utility consumers pay the increased prices following government’s inability to continue to subsidize prices of utility. “The reckless dissipation of our resources, if we had put our resources into good use, we won’t have the situation that we are talking about.” Meanwhile K.T. Hammond has criticized the pressure on government from international agencies such as the IMF and the World Bank. These agencies he said, are insisting that consumers be made to pay realistic prices for utility. “It is an unfair situation; we are being given a very wrong treatment, I do not like it,” he said.
Source – citifm
