{"id":173416,"date":"2015-12-10T13:47:32","date_gmt":"2015-12-10T13:47:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/?p=173416"},"modified":"2015-12-10T14:31:31","modified_gmt":"2015-12-10T14:31:31","slug":"dont-blame-purc-for-utility-price-increases-aies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2015\/12\/dont-blame-purc-for-utility-price-increases-aies\/","title":{"rendered":"Don\u2019t blame PURC for utility price increases \u2013 AIES"},"content":{"rendered":"
The African Institute of Energy and Sustainability (AIES) says Ghanaians should not blame the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) for the recent utility tariff hikes.<\/p>\n
This was after the PURC approved a 59.2 and 67.2 percent increases in electricity and water respectively.<\/p>\n
Some political parties, labour unions and civil society groups have described the increment as unfortunate and wicked.<\/p>\n
[contextly_sidebar id=”8AID12ey6C6TYfbdfUP3X1OApF69xxyN”]But the Executive Director of AIES Dr. Samiu Kwadwo Nuamah, in an interview with Citi News said\u00a0the increment is largely due to the worsening economic conditions and other external factors.<\/p>\n
He\u00a0however says\u00a0utility price adjustments must not to be taken lightly and must be approached with circumspection.<\/p>\n
\u201cPURC they are just regulators and before they come out with the prices, they look several factors and none of these factors is under their control. They are all external factors\u2026for instance the depreciation of the cedi has everything to do with Government\u2019s management of the economy so how can we blame the PURC for looking at the devaluation of the cedi in their consideration of the pricing? They only look at the current prevailing situation and they come out with the pricing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dr. Nuamah says going forward Ghana may have to consider other alternatives in its quest to generate more power.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can\u2019t only rely on the same type of fuel as in oil and gas because we have issues with that. We can also look at coal, solar, thermal and using local fuels as in waste, biomass and so many of these other things that we can take advantage of. So those are things that if government should take a proper look at them, it will ease the pressure on us as a country.\u201d<\/p>\n
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