Alhaji Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, the Vice President has justified the new increment of electricity tariffs by the Public Utilities and Regulatory Commission (PURC).
He said the erstwhile National Democratic Congress (NDC) administration increased prices by 166% therefore the recent 5% increase isn’t insensitive.
“Between 2013 and 2016, just the last four years of the NDC government, the cumulative increase in electricity tariff was 166%”, he said at the launch of of the Youth Employment Agency (YEA) Jobs Centre.
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“In 2018, we [NPP] reduced electricity prices of businesses by 30% and for households by 17.5 %, an average of around 22%.”
“Earlier this year in July, there was an increase of electricity price of 11% and yesterday of 5.6%. When you take the total cumulative increase on average, as I said, between 2017 and today, you have a cumulative decrease of about 5%.”
“So, the NDC, in their last four years, increased [electricity tariff] by 166%, we have come down since we have been in government by 5% on average.”
The Public Utilities and Regulatory Commission on Monday announced 5.94% on electricity tariffs and 2.22% on water tariffs across board for all customer categories.
A statement announcing the changed said: “Following a review of Electricity and Water Tariffs for the fourth Quarter 2019 which is from October – December 2019, the PURC wishes to announce for the information of consumers of electricity and water that there has been an upward adjustment in the existing tariffs.”