With the government’s intended quarterly increase in utility tariffs, Ghanaians will have more economic burden to contend with, the minority caucus has warned.

Deputy Ranking Member of the Finance Committee of Parliament Isaac Adongo told journalists on Wednesday, 21 June 2023: "Every three months, they will increase electricity and water tariffs without due regard to its impacts on individuals, households, and businesses and this will definitely impact badly in the cost of doing business and feed into the current debilitating inflation and suffering being experienced by Ghanaians".

"Now, you go and buy electricity and when you get home, you are afraid to slot the card because the units on the card are not enough, and you will need to go back and buy to top up", he demonstrated.

The Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) in May this year, announced the review of tarrifs for natural gas and electricity.

The review takes effect from the second quarter of 2023.

“The review has become necessary to maintain the real value of cost of supply of the utility services and to ensure that the utility companies do not under or over recover costs,” the PURC said in a statement issued on Wednesday, 17 May 2023.

It continued: “The first quarter decision resulted in a 25 per cent under-recovery of the exchange rate. This has to be recovered in order to ensure that the country does not add to the already mounting in the energy sector.”

It revealed: “The projected exchange rate for the second quarter plus the first quarter under recover is GHS 12.7118 to the US Dollar.”

Hence, the average end-user tariff for electricity has been increased by “18.36 per cent across the board for all customer groups.”