{"id":1108898,"date":"2022-06-03T09:58:47","date_gmt":"2022-06-03T09:58:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/06\/03\/group-calls-for-return-to-automatic-adjustment-formula\/"},"modified":"2022-06-03T09:58:47","modified_gmt":"2022-06-03T09:58:47","slug":"group-calls-for-return-to-automatic-adjustment-formula","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/06\/03\/group-calls-for-return-to-automatic-adjustment-formula\/","title":{"rendered":"Group calls for return to automatic adjustment formula"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n Accra, June 02, GNA- The Coalition of Stakeholders on Electricity Contracts and Arrangements (COSECA), an advocacy group, has called for a return to the automatic adjustment formula to determine utility tariffs to prevent the accumulation of tariffs.<\/p>\n
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The Group said failure by the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) to implement the automatic adjustment formula on a quarterly basis over the years had led to the accumulation of \u201chigh tariffs\u201d at the expense of consumers.<\/div>\n
Addressing a news conference in Accra on Thursday, June 2, 2022, Dr Steve Manteaw, Chairman of COSECA, accused the PURC of failing to effectively discharge its regulatory mandate.<\/div>\n
\u201cThere is enough blame sharing to go round from government to management of utility companies, however, the PURC is the number one reason why we have the tariffs currently piled up,\u201d he said.<\/div>\n
The Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) and Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) have proposed tariffs of 334 per cent and 148 per cent respectively, to the PURC for approval for the year 2022.<\/div>\n
They cited an increase in their operational cost, exchange rate, high inflation and depreciation of the local currency (Cedi) against its major trading currencies (Dollar and Pounds sterling) as the reasons for their tariff proposal.<\/div>\n
Dr Manteaw said the \u201chuge increases in tariffs\u201d by the ECG and GWCL were partly due to the long-standing inefficiencies in the companies, usually attributed to low level of investment in new technology, political interferences in the affairs of the company, among other factors.<\/div>\n
He said there was a lack of firm and accurate accountability between the players in the energy sector, which, he added, had created a situation where estimates \u201care bandied about in a way that facilitates poor management, hiding of losses and potential corruption.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cThis Black Box approach where some players do not meter their output but estimate them, and where players like ECG are not allowed to determine their total actual cost of production, due to inputs in the form of government\u2019s subsidies and denial of revenue through taking out portions of tariffs (such as DSC 2), and the effect of \u2018political electrification schemes\u2019 etc, have made it almost impossible to determine a fair and appropriate tariff that will ensure the company\u2019s commercial viability,\u201d he said.<\/div>\n
The Group contended that the current commercial and technical losses components, contributing to the high tariffs could be drastically reduced with efficient management.<\/div>\n
The COSECA also called for an \u201curgent\u201d audit of the \u201cplethora\u201d of energy funds and schemes, including the ESLA, Covid-19 Levy, and Government Stabilisation payments to ECG, arguing that those funds \u201care not being well managed.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cIt is our contention that, the management of these funds, if properly done will make tariff increments unnecessary or minimal.\u201d Dr Manteaw said.<\/div>\n
The COSECA appealed to the government to increase its capital expenditure on the utility companies to ensure retooling, expansion and improved service delivery.<\/div>\n
The Group also urged the management of the utility companies to turn around their fortunes, by taking urgent steps to reduce technical and commercial losses.<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Accra, June 02, GNA- The Coalition of Stakeholders on Electricity Contracts and Arrangements (COSECA), an advocacy group, has called for a return to the automatic adjustment formula to determine utility tariffs to prevent the accumulation of tariffs. The Group said failure by the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) to implement the automatic adjustment formula on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1108900,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[1071,16038,230,6190,516,1970],"class_list":["post-1108898","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-adjustment","tag-automatic","tag-calls","tag-formula","tag-group","tag-return"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1108898","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1108898"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1108898\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1108898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1108898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1108898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}