Government’s spokesperson on Governance and Security, Palgrave Boakye-Danquah says Ghanaians owe appreciation to the government for reducing the recent tariff hikes from the proposed figures of over 300% to less than 30%.
Speaking on the Joy News program, The Probe, Boakye-Danquah said it was through the intervention of government that the tariffs ended up being as low as they were when service providers were calling for much steeper increases.
Prior to the tariff increases, the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) made a proposal for tariff increments of over 300% whilst the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) made a proposal for 148% increase.
Eventually, the Public Utilities and Regulatory Commission (PURC) sanctioned tariff increases of 27.15% for electricity and 21.55% for water.
According to Palgrave Boakye-Danquah, this is evidence of the work put in by government to cushion the impact of the tariff increases on ordinary Ghanaians.
“The proposals that were made by the utility companies were even far more than the consideration that PURC and government have been able to put together. Ghana Water made a proposal of 300% and ECG made a proposal of 148%,” he said.
“NEDCo also made a proposal of 113% increment and VRA a proposal of 37% increment. When you look at all of these, clearly you see that the government has cushioned the impact on the Ghanaian people and we must appreciate that,”
Responding to criticism that government did not hold enough consultative efforts before announcing the increment, Boakye-Danquah said that’s just not true because they held consultations across board including with select committees in Parliament.
He insisted that the tariffs are unconscionably low considering water and electricity are constantly in supply.
“Our tariffs are below 30%, our lights are continually on, our water is continually flowing and a lot more infrastructure work is going on in government,” he added.
Source: theGhanaianVoice.Com
