Ing Samuel Boakye Appiah (middle) flanked to the right by Ing Tetteh Okai, Deputy Managing Director in charge of Engineering Operations and another management member of ECG
The major tariff review announced recently by the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) takes effect today, 15th March, 2018, the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) has disclosed.
Speaking at a press conference in Accra yesterday, Ing Samuel Boakye Appiah, Managing Director of ECG, said even though the implementation of the directive begins today, the monthly billing cycle of the prepayment metering system does not technically allow ECG to implement the review in the middle of the month.
“Consequently, prepaid customers of ECG should take note that the programming of the billing system will refund the reduction from the implementation date of 15th to 31st March, 2018 when they deposit cash or purchase electricity from 1st April, 2018 onwards,” he explained.
He said when customers visit their vending points in April, the prepayment system will detect their aggregate purchase for the month of March and then compute the reduction due to them from the effective date of 15th to 31st March and refund that to their accounts.
Ing Boakye Appiah said it is important for customers to note that the average percentage reduction, (i.e. the 17.5 percent for residential, 30 percent for non-residential, 25 percent for SLTs and 10 percent for the mines), “is on energy consumption only. Therefore, the addition of statutory levies and other fixed charges will reduce the average percentage relief announced by PURC.”
He said, “ECG has catalogued all unit consumption and the expected cost in a ‘Reckoner’ which will clearly explain how the tariff is calculated and billed, regardless of the type of metering; and this will be displayed at all district offices and revenue centers nationwide to guide customers on their electricity purchases.”
Asked how the reduction in tariff would affect the operation of ECG, the MD replied, “We are still in the process of looking at the numbers to determine the impact on operations. We are using the Automated Adjustment Formula (AAF) so if there are losses on our part, we will go back to PURC so that that can be re-looked.”
By Samuel Boadi