Consumers In Takoradi Laud Government For Tariff Relief

Some clients of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) in the Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolitan Assembly (STMA) have expressed appreciation to the Nana Akufo-Addo led government for reducing tariffs on their electricity bills.

President Nana Akufo-Addo in his address to the nation on April 9, 2020 to provide an update on COVID-19 announced a 50 per cent and 100 per cent reduction on tariffs for businesses and lifeline consumers respectively as COVID-19 pandemic special electricity bill relief for consumers.

The bill relief commenced effectively on 01 May , 2020 for prepaid customers, while postpaid customers had theirs reflecting on their April, 2020 bills that was delivered by the end of May, 2020.

For instance, some of the customers indicated that they bought GH¢ 20.00 on February 07 and had since been using without the power going off.

For her part, Mrs. Christina Sackey, Proprietress of the Classic Beauty Palour in Takoradi disclosed that about two weeks ago, her prepaid accounts was credited with GH¢ 94.00 when she went to buy GH¢ 40.00 of credit.

She explained that hitherto, she would have had less than the GH¢ 40.00 but due to the reduction in tariffs as announced earlier by the President following the economic hardship the pandemic was having on Ghanaians.

She commended the government for the relief and described it as a step in the right direction since it would go a long way to lessen the hardships associated with the COVID-19 pandemic.

Mrs. Sackey expressed the optimism that the reduction in tariffs would help reduce illegal connection and therefore encouraged customers to use electricity wisely to save the government some money.

However, she stressed that "if one was disconnected for an illegality or none payment of electricity bills, this was the opportune time to make amends by paying to benefit from the relief for the period."