{"id":374747,"date":"2017-11-17T15:36:32","date_gmt":"2017-11-17T15:36:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=374747"},"modified":"2017-11-17T15:36:32","modified_gmt":"2017-11-17T15:36:32","slug":"nothing-wrong-with-asking-purc-for-tariff-reduction-agyarko","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2017\/11\/nothing-wrong-with-asking-purc-for-tariff-reduction-agyarko\/","title":{"rendered":"Nothing wrong with asking PURC for tariff reduction – Agyarko"},"content":{"rendered":"
Minister of Energy, Boakye Agyarko, has dismissed claims that the government erred by recommending an adjustment in the electricity tariffs to the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC).<\/p>\n
A former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Volta River Authority (VRA), Dr. Charles Wereko-Brobby, had suggested that the government was trying to usurp the mandate<\/strong><\/a><\/span> of the\u00a0 (PURC), by announcing an average\u00a0reduction of between 13 and 21 percent<\/strong><\/a><\/span> in\u00a0electricity tariffs for residential and industrial consumers.<\/p>\n [contextly_sidebar id=”68n5y9mRnzPMBp4JAcF5ihJmTPhUFofZ”]According to him, the announcement of the proposal to the PURC by the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, whilst reading the 2018\u00a0budget statement on the floor of Parliament, put undue pressure on the PURC to approve it.<\/p>\n However, the Energy Minister, speaking to some journalists, including Citi News<\/strong>‘ Duke Mensah Opoku, rejected those assertions, stating that it would have been irresponsible of government not to request the reduction in the interest of Ghanaians.<\/p>\n “We have made recommendations to the PURC seeking their approval, so I don’t understand the hullabaloo. If we as a government, see benefits that could accrue and inure to the benefit of our citizens, it would be irresponsible on our part not to go to PURC for them to approve those benefits so that our citizens can get cheaper electricity. I don’t see anything wrong with it. We have not declared a reduction. We have gone to PURC to seek their approval, but there’s nothing wrong with us telling the nation what we have done,” Boakye Agyarko said.<\/p>\n He added that, the PURC ultimately had the mandate to determine whether the request from government had any merit, and would only approve it if they believe it was appropriate for them to do so.<\/p>\n He thus brushed aside the claims that they were exerting pressure on PURC into approving the tariff reduction, stating that it would have been unwise to go to the Commission without suggesting a rate of decrease.<\/p>\n “It’s up to the PURC to approve it or not. You send things to PURC to examine and review. We’ve not told PURC what to do, we’ve made a request. It’s semantics, if we have a problem with the English language, let us say so. All we have done is send a request to PURC for their examination and approval. Should we have gone to PURC and just said reduce the tariffs? It would have been grossly irresponsible to go to PURC without numbers and ask them to approve it,” he said.<\/p>\n