Akufo-Addo Gov’t lied about reducing electricity tariffs – Mahama charges

The Flagbearer of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), John Dramani Mahama,  is debunking the government’s claim that it has reduced electricity tariffs.

The Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) announced a 5.6 per cent increase in electricity tariffs on September 30, this year, leading to claims by the opposition that government had mismanaged the electricity sector, hence the “unprecedented” increase.

But the Vice President maintained that the Nana Akufo-Addo government had kept faith with Ghanaians and had for the first time in Ghana’s history, cumulatively reduced tariffs since assuming office on January 7, 2017.

“What was the situation before we came into office? I’ll give you a background. In 2010 the average increase in electricity was 89 per cent; 2011 was 10 per cent; 2013 was 78 per cent; 2014 was 28.3 per cent; 2015 was 59.2 per cent.

Between 2013 and 2016, just the last four years of the NDC government, the cumulative increase in electricity tariff was cumulatively 166 percent, the Vice President said during the launch of four initiatives by the Youth Employment Agency.

According to the Vice President, the government has reduced electricity prices for businesses by 30 per cent and households by 17.5 per cent; an average of around 22 per cent in 2018.

However, responding to this, in a facebook live series with his fanbase on Monday, the NDC flagbearer explained that the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) and Northern Electricity Distribution Company (NEDCO) are the main distributors of power in Ghana.

“Now they buy the electricity from the generating company and this includes VRA and Independent power producers; Ameri, Karpower and all the others so they buy that power at a certain price and they also sell it to us at a certain price, ” he added.

According to him, in 2018, the reduction in price led to a debt of almost GHc 5 billion.

But to the NDC flagbearer, the NPP government is simply postponing an eventual blow which will lead to an increase in the cost of power.

“After increasing the price pack they leave Ghanaians with a debt of millions of cedis which at the end of the day the people will have to bear the cost.

“Nana Addo is not going to pay from his pocket. All of us will be called to come and pay that is why they increased the Energy Sector Levy Act (ESLA) recently. It is to pay down the additional debt created by reducing the tariffs and in the end, the ordinary Ghanaian is going to pay that tariffs,” he stressed.

The NDC flagbearer believes all that extra money from ESLA is going to pay the extra debt that the government is accumulating over the years.

“And anytime we buy fuel, the ESLA that we left has been increased by 25 per cent to crawl back the 5 billion that we have enjoyed, ” he said.