A
member of the Communication team of the People's Progressive Party,
Samuel Amoako says the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) should be
overhauled in order to streamline its operations.
Samuel Amoako,
speaking on Peace Fm, expressed distrust in the authorities of the
company to ameliorate the energy situation the country is grappling
with.
The Public Utilities Regulatory Commission on Thursday,
June 4, 2013 indicated that it will soon start a “major tariff review
process” after receiving proposals from the service providers for an
increment in electricity and water bills.
Three years ago,
tariffs on power and water supply saw an upward adjustment of 89% and
36% respectively but since then the rates have been reviewed quarterly.
The rates were however fixed since November 30, 2011 and in 2012, the
nation hardly experienced any further adjustments.
The country
has since last year gone through major energy and water setbacks,
therefore putting pressure on ECG to deliver its best to resolve the
perennial power fluctuations.
The company is said to account for
around one-fifth of the power sold to it by the Volta River Authority
(VRA) and is accumulating debt at a rate of GHC 26 million per month to
the Authority, said Ekow Acquah, Manager for Sales Contracts and
Regulations of the Authority.
In total, ECG is indebted to a
tune of GHC 545 million in April. This therefore has necessitated the
proposal by the company to opt for an increment in the tariffs.
However,
the PPP Communicator insists that the new tariff proposal does not
augur well for the nation since consumers always fall victim to any
increment in utility bills.
He therefore held strongly that
“there should be an overhaul, institutional overhaul of State
institutions. The nation is suffering. We need overhauling of the
Electricity Company of Ghana. The debt that they want to incur upon
Ghanaians won’t help us.” |
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