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Gov't will not
increase electricity tariff, says sector Minister
BY Abdul Salam Sule,
Ghanadot
Accra, April 22, Ghanadot - Dr Joe
Oteng Adjei, the Minister of Energy, has denied the report
that the government intends to remove subsidy on electricity
tariffs thereby increasing the price on consumption.
The Minister's denial follows a news item on JOY FM
yesterday which quoted him (the Minister) to have hinted
about the removal of the subsidy on electricity consumption
by the government.
Reacting to the issue this morning, Dr Oteng Adjei said the
government had no intention of increasing the tariffs on
electricity consumption and the story by the radio station
was false.
"I have never said it anywhere that the government was going
to remove the subsidy on electricity consumption and I am
shock about that report", the Minister registered his
displeasure.
According to him, the Public Utility Regulatory Commission (PURC)
was responsible for increasing tariffs on electricity and he
had never had meeting with them to discuss such issue.
"In fact our long term objective is to make sure that we
keep the prices on electricity as stable as possible", he
revealed.
To keep the prices stable, Dr Oteng Adjei said, the
government was working with Ghana National Petroleum
Authority (GNPC) to make sure gas could be derived from the
Jubilee Oil Field to be used as a source of power for the
thermal plant.
Explaining further, the Energy Minister revealed that,
though petrol and diesel could be used to power the thermal
plant, it is expensive and government would have to spend
huge amount of money in that sector.
He said, the government would therefore used the resources
available to harness the gas at the Jubilee Oil Field and
build the right infrastructure so that gas would be used to
power the thermal plant to support the hydro-power to
improve supply of power in the country.
"With this, the prices on electricity will be as stable as
possible and it will go long way to enable industries to
make some gains and hopefully they can use those gains to
expand their sector and employ more people", he added.
Dr Oteng Adjei assured, instead of increasing the tariffs on
electricity consumption, the government would rather come
out with an action plan that would make the prices as stable
as possible even if they could not reduce it.
Ghanadot
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