NO REDUCTION IN LIGHT BILLS

Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com

By William Yaw Owusu

Monday, July 4, 2016

The recent promise by President John Mahama that electricity bills would be reduced effective July 1 does not appear to have taken off.

This is because the current system of billing which the president reportedly said had anomalies, as a result of which consumers are experiencing killer tariffs, is still in full force and power consumers continue to pay more for less electricity used, especially pre-paid meter users.

The Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) has raked in millions of Ghana cedis from the defective billing system and it’s not clear whether it is going to make refunds to consumers.

The main opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) presidential candidate, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, had called on the National Democratic Congress (NDC) administration to reduce the outrageous tariffs which had led to several demonstrations across the country, promising to cut down on the killer tariffs, particularly the several taxes imposed on power consumers by the government.

This might have forced President Mahama to promise the reduction without spelling out the modalities.

The ECG has already rubbished claims of billing errors, blaming the high taxes imposed and the withdrawal of the marginal subsidy for the outrageous tariffs. 

Dumsor Not Over

Additionally, the erratic power supply, known in local parlance as dumsor - which has been with Ghanaians for some four years, and which has collapsed many industries and businesses - is continuing unabated, in spite of the huge investments the Mahama-led administration claims it had made in the energy sector.

The president admitted on his tour of the Ashanti Region last week that the dumsor was still not over but insisted the situation was better than previously.

Most areas in the national capital, Accra, are experiencing load shedding between 12-24 hours, especially at the weekends, with no announcements from the power providers.

Mr Mahama told the Council of Christian Churches in Kumasi on Thursday that the power crisis had been prolonged by the non-supply of gas from neighbouring Nigeria to power some of the thermal plants in the country.

Interestingly, it was the same president who told Ghanaians during his recent State of the Nation address that the NDC government had been able to solve the power crisis.

Tariff Reduction

Speaking to traders at Madina in Accra recently during his ‘Accounting to the people’ tour, President Mahama promised that effective July 1, Ghanaians were going to start experiencing some relief in electricity bills.

He said the ECG, which has been listed to be sold to private entities due to non-performance, was set to implement a new billing cycle to address concerns of the public, particularly on overbilling.

“Because the electricity billing is done in monthly cycles, they have to start on the first of a month with the billing cycle. So I have asked Ghanaians to exercise patience, from first July they’d start the new billing cycle and I’m sure that a lot of us will see some relief in the electricity bills,” he stated.

President Mahama said the body made up of the ECG and other state agencies he set up to look into the billing problems had brought its recommendations stressing, “I have given them the opportunity to go ahead to implement the solutions they’ve come up with.”

Akosombo Effect

Explaining why the cost of producing electricity had gone so high and the consumer made to bear the cost, President Mahama said the lack of rains had made the Volta Lake that feeds the Akosombo Dam to dwindle, and therefore the country’s reliance on hydro energy had reduced, making thermal energy more sought after currently.

A consumer observed, “Ironically, while Ghana sells power to its local consumers at 13 cents, electricity imported from neigbouring Cote d’Ivoire is far cheaper – 8 cents - indicating that Ghanaian consumers are being shortchanged.”

“I’ve explained that the bills went so high because the waters in our hydro dams are low and hydro is the cheapest source of power. Now all the power we are producing is either with gas or with crude oil and these are more expensive than hydro. But we are praying that this year the rains would be good so that the dams would recover. As we put in cheaper hydro power we will adjust the tariff to reflect the cheaper power we are getting," President Mahama averred.