Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Consumer Protection Agency, Kofi Kapito has described the cumulative price increases in some utilities and commodities as “very worrisome,”
In the past few weeks, Ghanaians have been hit with increases in fuel prices, electricity tariffs and water tariffs.
Mr. Kapito laments that it is “too much for the consumer.”
Fuel price increases were followed by increase in transport fares.
From October 1, cell phone users started paying more for communication services following the implementation of the 9 percent Communication Services Tax.
The Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) also increased electricity tariffs by 5.94 percent and water tariffs by 2.22 percent yesterday, Monday.
There had previously been an 11.17 percent increase in electricity tariffs back in June.
On the electricity front, Mr. Kapito expressed worry that the hikes may push some consumers back into trying to cheat the system.
“The reason why we want people to stop doing illegal connections and make sure they pay bills on time is to give a reliable and efficient supply.”
“At this point, people will start stealing electricity again. People will start doing all kinds of things because the average workers salary hasn’t been increased.”
On the utility front, the PURC explained that factors such as the Cedi-US dollar exchange rate, inflation, demand forecast and electricity cost accounted for the increment.
The rest of the factors are the price of crude oil and Natural Gas, fuel mix, generation mix and the power purchase cost.
The Automatic Adjustment Formula (AAF) is the mechanism that tracks and incorporates movement in key determining factors to reflect the real cost of electricity and water quarterly.