{"id":390293,"date":"2018-01-10T14:53:57","date_gmt":"2018-01-10T14:53:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=390293"},"modified":"2018-01-10T16:23:57","modified_gmt":"2018-01-10T16:23:57","slug":"we-didnt-lie-about-reducing-electricity-tariffs-agyarko","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=390293","title":{"rendered":"We didn&#8217;t lie about &#8216;reducing&#8217; electricity tariffs &#8211; Agyarko"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Energy Ministry has described as false, claims by the Minority Spokesperson on Energy, Adams Mutawakilu, that it has not made any proposal to the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) to reduce electricity tariffs, as captured in the 2018 budget.<\/p>\n<p>These proposals were meant to seek a revision of the tariff\u00a0setting methodology\u00a0and cost structure for power production.<\/p>\n<p>[contextly_sidebar id=&#8221;ELH0OYfLj6K0EITmGb8rEqvhUWs1LZrO&#8221;]Responding to the claims at a meeting of Ghanaian CEOs, the Energy Minister, Boakye Agyarko, said there were documents available to prove the proposal for reduction was sent as far back as November 2017.<\/p>\n<p>Mr. Agyarko also chided Mr.\u00a0Mutawakilu for making assumptions on the matter, and said the MP could have simply pushed for him to be summoned to Parliament to provide clarity.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The Ministry sent a proposal to the PURC on the 17th of November, and he is welcome to see copies of these matters. Indeed, it is within his power as the ranking member to summon me to the Mines and Energy Committee [of Parliament] for such a verification.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;&#8230;We have submitted our proposal and I can say that without the fear of contradiction, because I know that is what the truth is. The PURC responded to the proposals we have sent, and he is\u00a0welcome to see copies of these because he is an officer of Parliament and an officer of State,\u201d the Minister said.<\/p>\n<p>The government announced that it had recommended <span style=\"color: #666699;\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/contextly.com\/redirect\/?id=4ebwTtGqIw:374461:2934:13:::sidebar:5a56238033b8a9-64109961\">the review<\/a><\/strong><\/span> of electricity tariffs in the country to the PURC.<\/p>\n<p>Government said it is hoping for an average\u00a0reduction of 13 percent in\u00a0electricity tariffs for residential consumers, whilst it is\u00a0targeting\u00a0a 21 percent drop for industrial consumers.<\/p>\n<p>Reducing electricity tariffs was a major promise from the New Patriotic Party (NPP) ahead of the 2016 elections.<\/p>\n<p><b>Skepticism\u00a0from NDC<\/b><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_380435\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-380435\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-380435\" src=\"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/Adams-Mutawakilu-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/Adams-Mutawakilu-1.jpg 600w, https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/Adams-Mutawakilu-1-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-380435\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Adams Mutawakilu<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Members of the Minority in Parliament were not shy in expressing\u00a0their skepticism of the government\u2019s pledge to reduce electricity tariffs in the budget.<\/p>\n<p>Mr. Mutawakilu previously noted that, the expectation of gas coming on stream to power thermal plants as a means of driving down electricity cost for the ordinary Ghanaian would not materialize.<\/p>\n<p>The Minority Leader in Parliament, Haruna Iddrisu, also said the proposed\u00a0average\u00a0reduction of 13 percent in\u00a0electricity tariffs for residential consumers will ultimately be <span style=\"color: #666699;\"><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2017\/11\/16\/dont-smile-yet-over-insignificant-electricity-tariff-reduction-haruna\/\">insignificant<\/a><\/strong><\/span> when approved.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;<\/p>\n<p>By: Delali Adogla-Bessa\/citifmonline.com\/Ghana<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Energy Ministry has described as false, claims by the Minority Spokesperson on Energy, Adams Mutawakilu, that it has not made any proposal to the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) to reduce electricity tariffs, as captured in the 2018 budget. These proposals were meant to seek a revision of the tariff\u00a0setting methodology\u00a0and cost structure for [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":374537,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,11],"tags":[14748,702,11545,3,16025],"class_list":["post-390293","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-slider-1","category-top-stories","tag-adams-mutawakilu","tag-boakye-agyarko","tag-electricity-tariffs","tag-ghana-news","tag-public-utilities-regulatory-commission"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390293","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=390293"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390293\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/374537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=390293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=390293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=390293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}