Energy Economist with the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), Ebenezer Baiden, says the recent tariff decision by the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) seeks to strike a fair balance but still leaves ECG operating under very tight financial limits.
He made the remarks on Joy News’ PM Express on Monday, which was monitored by Elvisanokyenews.com.
He noted that although ECG required a higher tariff adjustment to cover its rising obligations, the PURC considered what consumers could realistically afford. He explained that ECG must now maximize the limited revenue approved by the commission.
“For us, PURC has done the balancing act, though we require a number, what they say is, this is what consumers can afford, So we’re going to now take whatever has been given and then work with it,
“We’re supposed to do our best out of the revenues that we’ve been given. We are in a situation where investments were done. We’ve not been able to pay for it. Now we’ve been given some 9% or 10% for us to be able to recover as part of this cost and pay for it. We’re able to clean our books.”
Ebenezer Baiden further revealed that recent disbursements through the Cash Waterfall Mechanism have offered some relief to ECG.
“We were very happy for example last month, Cash Waterfall was able to pay for most of the invoices that came from upstream providers and then also the SOEs. So it’s looking good, we’ll work with what we have, and then make sure that we please our customers.”
Source: Elvisanokyenews.com
