Head of Communications at the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC), Ali Jarana, has indicated that the Commission will consider the interest of the consumers in reviewing tariffs this year.
Ali Jarana stated that although indicators such as inflation and the cost of products will determine part of the new tariffs, the Commission will consider a lot more. He indicated that the utilities are yet to justify their reasons for the call to review the tariffs in the proposals they have presented to the Commission.
“So, the proposals have come, the next thing is that the Commissioner will have to approve the rate setting guidelines and the rate setting guidelines have been approved. Now, we are going to roll out a stakeholder engagement. The utilities are now being invited and we are setting a date anytime soon from next two weeks, for them to do what we call justification and presentation of proposals to the commissioners and management of PURC.”
Ali Jarana
According to the Head of Communications, when PURC meets with the utilities, they will be questioned and be made to justify why they are calling for an increase or reduction in tariffs. Touching on what is considered before a tariff review for the utility companies, Ali Jarana stated that PURC will have to weigh things, look at some factors and see what it can do to inure to the benefit of the utilities and to the benefit of the consuming public.
“I describe PURC as a double edged sword in the sense that PURC is out there to protect the interest of the utilities and we are also out there to protect the interest of the consuming public.”
Ali Jarana
Commission to set up regulatory index
Ali Jarana disclosed that the Commission is also working on setting up a regulatory index to name and shame utility companies which do not provide quality service. He revealed that PURC is currently in the process of establishing and have almost completed the establishment of two regulatory audit units to carry out regulatory audits.
“The audit unit will find out how the utilities are performing and at the end of the day, we are going to have a regulatory index that will be published monthly for utilities that are not performing to standard.”
Ali Jarana
The Head of Communications stated that the index will look at how many complaints have come to utility and the amount of time used in resolving them. “At the end of the day, we will have a tally for each of the utilities that is ECG, GRIDCo, NEDCo, Ghana Water Company.”
Ali Jarana comments followed an announcement by PURC that the tariffs will be reviewed either upward or downward in July this year after a rigorous process of collecting proposals from utility companies in an assessment of performance index satisfaction.
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