The Chief Executive of the Private Enterprise Foundation (PEF), Nana Osei Bonsu has urged government not to allow the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission, (PURC) to continue adjusting utility prices unilaterally.
He said the utility service providers like the Ghana Water Company Limited must be made to show proof of efficiency before being allowed to adjust prices.
His comments come in the wake of the 6% increase in water tariff announced by the PURC last week.
Nana Osei Bonsu who was speaking at the 2nd Ghana Water Treatment Confab and Exhibition organized by Tovila Water Solutions in Accra stated that the PURC should not be allowed to “always increase pricing because of your cost; the cost that we think is suspiciously high because of inefficiencies.”
He urged government not permit the PURC “to dictate those pricing because of what you present. Let’s publish it and let the consumers be aware so that we can all do the calculation.”
A Communications Manager at the Ghana Water Company Limited, Stanley Martey however said the claims lack merit.
He explained that in the last tariff adjustment which gave the company 58% increment, “a lot more people were very angry with the PURC that they had suspended the Automatic Adjustment Formula and as a result they had to give us a huge leap but then we forgot that because of our inefficiency in quote, the Automatic Adjustment Formula was suspended and we were all happy about it.”
He described as unfair for the PURC to be criticized for bringing but the Automatic Adjustment Formula to determine utility prices.
He pointed out that the Formula has parameters and factors in its calculations therefore, if the PURC decides to halt tariff adjustments due to hard economic situations; it is a great disservice to the utility providers.
By: Efua Idan Osam/citifmonline.com/Ghana
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