THE CHIEF Executive Officer (CEO) of the Consumer Right Protection Agency, Kofi Kapito has reacted strongly against the Minister for Power, Dr. Kwabena Donkor for asking Ghanaian consumers to pay more for electricity.
According to him, the sector Minister has no right whatsoever to impress on the people to pay more electricity bills in the midst of the unreasonable power interruptions or failures.
Speaking on the news segment of the TV3’s New Day Show on Tuesday, Mr. Kapito suspected that the minister’s call only hints of possible upward tariff adjustment and warned of equal possible rejection by the consumers.
The Minister for Power, Dr. Kwabena Donkor, at the signing of a thermal project agreement with Spain in Accra on Monday said that Ghanaians would have to pay more for electricity as Government takes measures to tackle the power crisis in the long-term.
His comment comes barely a month after the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC), implemented a 2.6% percent increase in electricity tariff. The 239 million loan agreement by the Volta River Authority (VRA) with Spain is to install 186 megawatts of power by the end 2015 at Aboadze in the Western Region.
On the other hand, Mr. Kapito charged the Minister to rather think about how to immediately fix the power crisis to save the majority of businesses being collapsed in Ghana and also bring comfort to the ordinary Ghanaian consumers before demanding them to pay for more.
According to him, the “dumsor” or the power crisis in Ghana could not be accepted in any other civilized nation where the people were seriously engaged in industrial activities. He strongly appealed to the government to fast track its much publicized long term measures to apprehend the situation.
Mr. Kapito recounted the number of businesses that had collapsed, workers who had been laid off and the lives and properties lost to fire in Ghana in the last few years, as a result of the power crisis.
He said that the Ghanaian consumer deserved better, reliable and uninterrupted power supply to enhance the quality of life and improve on their socio-economic development.
Mr. Kofi Kapito, therefore, urged the Minister of Power to rather wait till the power supply was improved and businesses revived before thinking about imposition of high tariff increment.
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