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Former Deputy Minister of Energy in the erstwhile John Mahama administration, John Jinapor has indicated that the power sector is at the breaking point under President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.

He explained that the only profit the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) made before President Akufo-Addo took over office from former President John Dramani Mahama was in 2016 where the company made Ghc500 million.

He added that from 2017 till date, the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) now Power Distribution Services (PDS), GRIDCo, Volta River Authority and Bulk Oil Storage and Transportation (BOST) Company Limited have all incurred huge losses under President Akufo-Addo.

“In 2016, ECG made a profit of GHc 500 million and when President Akufo-Addo took over office in 2017, ECG made loss of 700 million; 2018, ECG made loss of 2 billion and 2019 the ECG projected to make loss of 4 billion. GRIDCo made profit of 51 million and later made a loss of 100 million and another loss of about 200 million; VRA made loss and BOST was worse off, and so the power sector is collapsing under President Akufo-Addo,” he explained.

Speaking on Okay FM’s 'Ade Akye Abia' Morning Show on the PURC's pronouncement of tariff increment, the Yapei Kusawgu legislator said the tariff increment “does not make sense” when the Akufo-Addo led NPP government argued in 2018 that there was stability in the power sector.

President Akufo-Addo last year said that his government, over the past twelve months, has brought relative stability to the power sector in place of the erratic power situation popularly known as dumsor that it inherited.

Highlighting his government’s achievements in its first year in office, the President underlined the importance of ensuring a stable power supply for industry toward job-creation and productivity.

“A review of 24 power purchase agreements, which led to the termination of 11 power deals and the rescheduling of 8 others, has enabled us to save the government Treasury about US$7billion in excess capacity charges over a 13-year period,” he explained.

But the former aide to former President Mahama wondered why President Akufo-Addo is now hiding behind Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) to increase tariffs when his government has stabilized the power sector.

“Consumers are paying for the gas for the utilities and then pay higher electricity tariff and then again pay higher water tariff. This does not make sense; there is a problem and we are not being told the truth . . . even PURC is not being honest with us and they have allowed politics to frontier their work and that is dangerous for the economy of this country. The PURC must actually be independent and they must do what is right and proper,” he jabbed.

He asserted that the NPP government is using the backdoor to increase tariffs as there is no basis and justification for this increment, taking into consideration the government's argument in 2018.

“President Akufo-Addo even showered praises on former Energy Minister, Boakye Agyarko as the most hard working and intelligent minister for managing to see how best to reduce the tariffs, and today we all can see the disgrace which has befallen the country, and it is unfortunate,” he added.

He mentioned that the NDC regime made available domestic gas from the Jubilee Field, Sankofa Field and TEN Field, explaining why a chunk of fuel is not coming from Nigeria anymore, but from Ghana.

“ . . even now we are moving some of the gas from the Western side to the Eastern side and we did all these arrangements and the NPP came to delay the arrangements for more than 2 years and so clearly, there should be no justification for this increment based on the 2018 assessment and explanation Akufo-Addo government gave us.”

He alleged that the government is running away from their argument and pushing everything on the Public Utilities and Regulatory Commission (PURC) to carry out this assignment; quizzing why the Commission didn’t intervene when the tariffs were reduced but with tariff increment, the Commission announced it.