Water, Phone tax, Electricity, Fan Yogo Skyrockets As October Earns Title as “Month of Hardship”

From Today, Ghanaian electricity consumers will be paying approximately 17 per cent more on electricity tariffs plus a matching 11 per cent in water tariffs within the same timeline.

The increased tariffs by the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) has also sent the price of products of Fan Milk Ghana skyrocketing. The company announced increases of up to 20 per cent on its products, including Fan Yogo and the 250 ml Fan Ice now selling at GHC 1.20 and GHC 5.00 respectively.

Both sold for GHC 1.00 and GHC 4.17 respectively on the street.

Also in the bouquet of the October price hikes of important utilities is a 9 per cent increase in the cost of using telephone services in Ghana. Following the recent slapping of additional taxes on Talk Tax by the Akufo Addo administration.  

In a statement Monday, September 30, 2019, the PURC repeated its age-old reason by saying the increases were influenced by the Automatic Adjustment Formula (AAF) which considers factors such as inflation, currency depreciation, among others.

The new tariffs have socked consumers including artisans such as tailors, hairdressers and beauticians.

Though the PURC says its decision was informed by the exchange rate to the dollar, price of crude oil and natural gas, fuel and generation mix and the cost of producing water, consumers say the situation could not have been different from when the President, Nana Akufo Addo raised hopes at GIMPA in January 2018 that tariff pressure would be eased for consumers.

In June this year, PURC in its Major Tariff Review increased Electricity by 11.17% which took effect from 1st July 2019. Weeks later, Finance Minister in the Mid-Year budget review also announced and implemented a major increment of the Energy Sector Levies to pay for capacity charges.

Effective today consumers shall pay a 5.94% increase on electricity tariffs and 2.2% for water consumed. The business community is yet to respond officially. Last month, the association of Ghana industries prompted the government on the need to further reduce tariffs to ease the cost of doing business. All the tariff increment coming in the month of October has earned the month a tag by critics as the “Month of Hardship”.