PURC Increases Electricity Tariff By 18.36%
The Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) has increased the electricity tariff for the second quarter of the year by 18.36%.
This was contained in a press release from the PURC on Wednesday, May 17 after extensive deliberation and analysis.
It will affect all consumers and will be effective until the end of the second quarter of the year, the PURC noted.
It justified, “Since the announcement of the first quarter tariff decision in January 2023, the key variables underlying the rate setting have changed. The weighted average cedi/US dollar exchange rate used for the first quarter tariff review was GHc10.5421 to the US dollar. Since then the Ghana cedi has depreciated against the US dollar.
“The first quarter tariff decision resulted in 25% under-recovery of the exchange rate. This has to be recovered to ensure that the country does not add to the already mounting debt in the energy sector. The projected rate for the second quarter plus the first quarter under-recovery is GHc12.7118 to the US Dollar.”
The PURC holds that that review is necessary to maintain the real value cost of the supply of utility services and to ensure that the utility companies do not under or over costs.
“While under-recovery has negative implications for the ability of the companies to supply service to the consumer and has the potential of causing outages of electricity, over-recovery unnecessarily overburdens the consumer electricity,” it noted.
During the last review in January, the Commission increased both water and electricity tariffs. Electricity was increased by 29.96% whereas water was increased by 8.3%.
