The Director of Research and Corporate Affairs at the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC), Dr Eric Obutey, has said that the concerns raised by the Ghana Hotels Association have already been addressed by the commission.
The Ghana Hotels Association had petitioned the PURC to reverse the 167% tariff adjustment made in February to the initial 8.7%, which they said was adversely affecting their operational costs.
However, in an interview with Umaru Sanda Amadu on Eyewitness News on Citi FM in Accra on Tuesday, Dr Obutey explained: “That is an issue that is longstanding, an earlier tariff, not the current one. The earlier one that they are referring to, the 167% and 8.3%, are the ones that they petitioned us about earlier, we have discussed it. We have tried to resolve the issue, and I don’t see why the issue is coming up again at this point. They have presented the petition to the commission, and the commission will take a look at it and come back to them.”
“Yes, these are issues that have been dealt with by the commission. They petitioned the commission about the previous tariffs, for the second quarter and the first quarter. We have had discussions with them, we have engaged them at a particular point, and we have engaged them with the utility companies. So it is something that we have tried to deal with, and it has nothing to do with the current tariff. To the best of my knowledge, that issue has been dealt with.”
Meanwhile, the PURC on August 23, 2023, justified the 4.22% increase in electricity tariffs for all non-lifeline residential customers, which will affect the average end-user, effective September 1, 2023.
The utility regulator approved a 4.22% and 1.18% increase in electricity tariffs for all non-lifeline residential customers and for all other categories of water consumers, respectively, in its third-quarter utility review.
In an interview on Eyewitness News, Dr Obutey said that the PURC considered two things: closing the utility gap between the two streams of consumers and maintaining the real value of the tariffs.
