Dr. Ishmael Ackah
The Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) has announced that Electricity tariff for residential and non-residential consumers will increase by 5.84% while water tariffs will also increase by 5.16% starting from July 1, 2024 to September 30, 2024.
“The Public Utilities Regulatory Commission wishes to inform consumers of electricity and water that there has been a review of the existing tariffs to take effect from July 1, 2024 to September 30, 2024. The Commission wishes to announce that there will be 3.45% increase in electricity tariffs for lifeline consumers (0-30k Wh), 5.84% increase for all other residential consumers who are not part of the life line category bracket.
The industrial category will experience an increase in electricity tariffs of 4.92%. Water tariffs will experience an increase of 5.16% for all customer classes for the period under review”.
A statement issued and signed on Friday May 31, 2024 by the PURC Executive Secretary, Dr. Ishmael Ackah, said the reviews have been undertaken in line with the Commission’s quarterly review mechanism which tracks and incorporates movements in key uncontrollable factors.
Thus, the US Dollar and the Ghana Cedi domestic inflation rate, domestic generation mix and the cost of natural gas.
It said the reviews were also undertaken to maintain the real value of the tariffs in order to keep the utility service providers financially viable to enable them deliver services to consumers while considering the competitiveness of industries and the general living conditions of Ghanaians.
It further said that the revenue requirement for the first quarter of 2024 amounted to GH¢5.67 billion while revenue requirement for the second quarter is projected to be GH¢6.81billion.
That, it stated, would result in an increase of GH¢1.14billion over the first quarter revenue requirement.
“The Commission however decided to recover GH¢5.90billionof the GH¢6.81billion required for the second quarter. This decision was taken by the Commission taken into consideration the revenue collection performance of the sector, since continuous increase in tariffs has not yielded the corresponding increase in revenue collection by utilities to cover sector expenditure”.
It indicated that the Commission also considered the negative effect of passing on the entire revenue required in one tranche on customers as it works towards recovering the difference of GH¢906.21million in subsequent quarters.
“Total revenue requirement for the water sector for the first quarter of 2024 amounted to GH¢635.86 million. Revenue requirement for the second quarter of 2024 amounted to GH¢670.18 million. An additional GH¢34.33 million needs to be recovered in the second quarter of 2024, hence the adjustment to 5.16%,” it added.
By Ebenezer K. Amponsah