<<Print>>A former Member of Parliament for the Adentan Constituency, Adu Asare has defended attempts by the utility companies to increase tariffs again.
The Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) and the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) are lobbying for a one hundred percent increment in tariffs.
Mr. Asare on Citi FM’s news analysis programme, The Big Issue, said government cannot continue to subsidise utility tariffs especially when the economy is in a terrible state.
“Certainly we should pay more for power, we should bite the bullet and pay more for power,” the former Adentan legislator insisted when asked by the host Richard Sky.
The (ECG) wants the present tariff of 16 pesewas per unit to be increased to 35 pesewas, while the Volta River Authority (VRA) is demanding an increase from 15 pesewas to 30 pesewas per unit.
The Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) has also proposed an increase from GH¢1.70 per cubic metre to GH¢4.
GRIDCo also wants an increment from 4 pesewas per unit of transmission to 5 pesewas.
The proposals from the service providers were revealed during a public forum organised by the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) in Kumasi on Tuesday.
Mr. Asare believes ECG will effectively deliver on its mandate when it receives the necessary tariffs from consumers to support its operations.
“Even if I am not paying everything and I am allocating a considerable amount of money to that sector,I don’t think ECG will just come in one day and say I want to cut you off but if nothing is paid, we will have challenges with them.”
Gov’t not responsible for ECG challenges
Mr. Asare also pointed out that it will be unfair to solely blame government for challenges bevelling these service providers since they are expected to also use internally generated funds to support their operations.
“It is not about government. It is about efficiency, having the structures that will handle operations. I don’t think that if the management, board of ECG had their private company, they will sit and wait till three, four years for a particular institution. Government will certainly come in that way because most of these institutions are government subverted institutions but they also generate internal funds.”
He further explained that government has been unable to fulfill its obligations to the ECG because of “challenges with revenues.”
He however explained that government will resolve these challenges when it is “able to grow the economy up to a point where we have enough to release to every sector of the economy.”