PURC needs to backtrack on utility tariff increment – COPEC

The Executive Secretary of the Chamber of Petroleum Consumers (COPEC), Duncan Amoah, has urged the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) to rescind its decision to increase utility tariffs.

Duncan Amoah indicated that industry players will oppose the hikes if the government fails to revoke the adjustment.

The Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) has announced an increment in electricity and water tariffs by 14.75% and 4.02% respectively.

This was contained in a press release dated April 11.

The revision follows the Commission’s quarterly tariff review process for the first and second quarters of 2025. The PURC attributed the adjustments to factors, including the exchange rate between the Ghana cedi and the US dollar, inflation projections, fuel costs (particularly natural gas), and the current hydro-thermal generation mix.

“The Commission, in their decision today at 6pm reviewed upward the average end-user tariff for electricity by 14.75% (See Table 2) and also 4.02% (See table 3) upward for water supply across board for all category of consumers,” the release said.

However, Duncan Amoah argued that the PURC’s decision is unreasonable as consumer’s cannot be made to account for ECG’s inefficiencies and operational losses.

“If you look at the circumstances surrounding the ECG, there are issues of accountability that render even public procurement processes and laws moot and ineffective. We have almost 2,000 containers unaccounted for, running into hundreds of millions of Cedis.

“Then, we turn back and claim we don’t have money, hence being unable to sustain operations. Therefore, we are raising tariffs. This doesn’t add up, and PURC needs to backtrack on the decision.”

Duncan Amoah further added that “coming back to the consumer to insist we pay more, I can assure will be resisted fiercely”.

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