The Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) has increased water tariffs for the second quarter of 2023.

Consumers will, therefore, have to pay more for water from Thursday, 1 June 2023.

The PURC in a statement issued on Thursday, 19 May 2023, explained that it “took cognizance of the cost of electricity, increased volume cost of chemicals for raw water treatment, the Ghana Cedi/US Dollar exchange rate and inflation,” in taking the decision.

Meanwhile, the PURC has announced the review of tariff for natural gas and electricity.

The review takes effect from the second quarter of 2023.

“The review has become necessary to maintain the real value of cost of supply of the utility services and to ensure that the utility companies do not under or over recover costs,” the PURC said in a statement issued on Wednesday, 17 May 2023.

It continued that: “The first quarter decision resulted in a 25 per cent under-recovery of the exchange rate. This has to be recovered in order to ensure that the country does not add to the already mounting debt in the energy sector.”

It revealed that: “The projected exchange rate for the second quarter plus the first quarter under recover is GHS12.7118 to the US Dollar.”

Hence, the average end-user tariff for electricity has been increased by “18.36 percent across board for all customer groups.”