Majority Leader of Parliament, Mahama Ayariga, has come out in justifying the decision of the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission’s (PURC) to approve a 2.45% increase in electricity tariffs.
His comments followed concerns raised by the Minority Caucus, who questioned the rationale behind the increase despite the relative stability of macroeconomic indicators.
According to him, approving the decision is a necessary step to help the ECG tackle its growing debt burden.
Speaking in Parliament on Friday, June 27, he told Parliament that the 2.45% electricity tariff hike is crucial for the ECG to generate sufficient revenue, sustain operations, and avert a potential power crisis, despite stable economic indicators like inflation, exchange rates, and fuel prices.
“Last year, there was an effort made to prevent the PURC from adjusting the tariff; due to that, there was no adjustment for the whole period. ECG is accumulating huge debt, and it has to be paid for, and if we do not adjust the tariff to enable ECG to pay, ECG will collapse. They won’t be able to buy the input needed to keep the generators on, and we are going to have power outages,” he explained.
The majority leader also assured that the Minister for Energy and Green Transition will appear before Parliament next week to provide further clarity on the tariff review process.
“The bill has to be paid. So if PURC is doing its work, I do not think there is a basis for saying that because we have improved the economy, it doesn’t mean that the debt at ECG will just be whisked away. The bill has to be paid partly by consumers,” he emphasised.
The 2.45% upward adjustment, which takes effect on July 1, 2025, has attracted mixed reactions from civil society, industry stakeholders, and consumer groups.
