The Minority Spokesperson on Energy, K.T. Hammond, has said government\u2019s realignment of the Electricity Company of Ghana\u2019s \u00a0(ECG) new billing structure, will not cushion consumers of electricity.<\/p>\n
According to him, President Mahama only\u00a0sought to remind Ghanaians that they will still be paying more for power<\/strong> <\/a><\/span>when he announced at the of Eid-al- Fitr celebration that his government had not introduced subsidies , but only realigned the ECG’s billing structure.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen the President talked about realignment, he was trying to say he had not changed anything. He just came back to clarify that he has not reduced any tariff for anybody. We are stuck with it until we are done with him.”<\/p>\n When the host of Citi Eyewitness News<\/strong>, Richard Dela Sky, sought to find out from him whether the realignment will somewhat cushion consumers, K.T Hammond responded in the negative , saying “No it won’t.”<\/p>\n K.T Hammond believes the government is bent on not giving consumers subsidies.<\/p>\n Citing examples to support his claim, he recalled that under the erstwhile Kufuor administration, the NPP government intervened whenever there was an increment in tariffs.<\/p>\n \u201cAnytime the tariffs were raised to a point beyond consumers during the NPP administration, the government intervened\u201d<\/p>\n K.T Hammond further stated that, government deserves no commendation since it had failed to take measures to cushion consumers from what he described as \u201ckiller\u201d electricity tariffs.<\/p>\n \u201cKiller tariffs only make us worse off. The government must not be celebrated.\u201d<\/p>\n We are back to dumsor<\/strong><\/p>\n Asked whether\u00a0the\u00a0power crisis is resurfacing, K.T Hammond stated that, \u201cGhana is back to dumsor because there is no fuel in the system.\u201d<\/p>\n According to him, the\u00a0effort by government to secure power barges to ensure consistent power supply was just a facade.<\/p>\n \u201cThat whole thing was a gimmick. They were managing to acquire some fuel here and there but the thing had not been fixed\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n –<\/p>\n By: Marian Ansah\/citifmonline.com\/Ghana
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