The Association of Ghana Industries (AGI) has charged government to stop any planned major utility tariff increment.
[contextly_sidebar id=”ElxQaKllInZdoLiuX91JUTSxXmVJnEIN”]According to the AGI, industry cannot pay the foreign exchange losses incurred by the utility companies due to the depreciation of the cedi.
Three utility companies are proposing a more than 100 per cent increment in tariffs for 2015.
The President of the AGI James Asare Adjei speaking at the launch of the Afro Barometer report said government must make do its promise of ending the power crisis before close of year.
“Going back to the last tariff review upwards, have we been able to meet all the benchmark for which there was the need for tariff increases if we haven’t been able to meet all the benchmarks that were set why are we asking of tariff increases again?” he said.
The issue is not only incessant increase of tariff but there is the need for us to look critically at the efficiency of their operations. There is also the need for us to look at whether utility companies for example ECG, are able to recover bills effectively. If you are recovering 60-65 percent of bills you put out there and you increase it to 90-95 percent do you know how much you can recoup?”.
He added that “even if you come to power users and continuously increase tariffs and you are still not able efficiently to recover all bills and tariffs then you are back to square one. So AGI thinks the solution is not with the continuous increment of tariffs that is why we have stated clearly that industry is not ready for tariff increases,”.
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By: Norvan Acquah-Hayford/citifmonline.com/Ghana