A lecturer at the University of Ghana, Professor Ransford Gyampo, has questioned the proposal by the country’s utility service providers for the Public Utilities Regulatory Committee (PURC) to increase tariffs.

The Electricity Company of Ghana and Ghana Water Company Limited have proposed an increase in tariffs for the year 2022.

The ECG is proposing that the PURC allow the power distributor to charge 148% more as a tariff for 2022.

It also wants 7.6% average adjustments between the periods of 2023 to 2026.

The GWCL argues that while the average tariff per cubic metre in 2019 was 1.27 USD, it was reduced to USD 1.13 as a result of cedi depreciation.

For the GWCL, the current domestic tariff of GHS3.29 per cubic metre to consumers within 0-5 cubic metres is less than what the poor in rural areas pay, which is about 10 cedis.

The water company thus wants a 334% tariff hike.

Reacting to the proposed increment by the utility service providers, the University of Ghana lecturer in a Facebook post on Thursday, 12 May 2022, said: “You cannot propose an increment in utility bills across the board like that, at this time when the poor has already been hit hard.”

According to the lecturer, “it is not free SHS.”

He, therefore, wants “only article 71 officeholders, who have, but don’t pay, pay for such hikes,” to be made to pay the proposed increase by the utility service providers and “Leave the poor alone!”