The 2008 presidential candidate of the NPP and lead contender in the upcoming August 7 primaries of the party, Nana Akufo-Addo, has called for a reduction in utility tariffs to more realistic rates. Addressing delegates at his last stop during his long nationwide campaign tour, Nana Akufo-Addo said the current rates would lead to businesses collapsing and make home consumers poorer. Just days after utility prices went up on June 1, President Mills was heard in a BBC interview justifying the extremely high increment. Others have argued that prices went up for Government to meet its World Bank conditionalities. Two weeks after the increases, the World Bank finally released the second and final tranche of the $300 million Economic Governance and Poverty Reduction Credit facility which was approved in June last year. Nana Akufo-Addo believes the President cannot hide behind the World Bank on what he sees as "a recklessly high quantum of increase". To him, the President made himself the PRO for the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) when he chose to defend the high rates of increment in tariffs. He also mentioned that Government cannot also hide behind the so-called independence of the PURC after the President has chosen to defend the high rise in tariffs. He has therefore called on Government to show "care for the people and leadership to the country" on this issue, which has already "added insults to the injuries of industries and families". There is every indication that people's confidence in the economy and Government's management of it is at an all-time low since 2001. Inflation may be going down, but prices continue to rise, against the promises of candidate Mills that he would bring relief to the Ghanaian people and enterprises. Nana Akufo-Addo stressed that there is no justification for such percentage increases in the electricity and water bills. He also touched on complaints that the actual percentage increases are much higher than the announced rates. He therefore called on President Mills to “speak with the appropriate institutions to ensure an immediate reduction in utility tariffs because it is simply making life unbearable for the Ghanaians”. He added, “The increases in electricity and water tariffs are killing Ghanaians. It is another manifestation of the fact that the NDC’s Better Ghana agenda is a big failure.” Nana Akufo-Addo was speaking at the Liberty Assemblies of God Church, Abeka, on Thursday, 29th July when he met with delegates of the Okaikoi North constituency to round up his tour of the Greater Accra Region and his national tour. Speaking publicly for the first time on the matter, Nana Akufo-Addo noted that “if President Mills was a listening President, he should know by now that the continuous increase in utility tariffs, contrary to what he promised the people during the campaign, is putting a lot of pressure on the people’s livelihoods and life is fast becoming unbearable.” He continued, “President Mills should immediately do something about the utility tariffs to ease the pressures on the people he claims to care so much about." He continued, “Ghana is suddenly moving back under the Mills-Mahama NDC administration and it is all because they don’t have any good policies and programmes that can help move our country forward.” The former Foreign Minister under President Kufuor said, “They [NDC] promised to reduce the cost of living if they won power but today the cost of living is fast escalating under their watch.” He told his party members, “If we remain united and vote the candidate the masses are calling for, the NPP will win the votes of the great majority of the Ghanaian people and ensure that Ghana moves forward again.” The Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) late May announced upward adjustments of 89 per cent for electricity tariffs and 36 per cent for water, an action that met the immediate condemnation from labour, industry and people from all walks of life. Organized under the aegis of the Industrial and Commercial Workers Union (ICU), thousands of Ghanaian workers on Thursday, 29th July joined in a mass protest against high utility tariffs. The demonstration, replicated in the Ashanti Regional capital of Kumasi, was to impress upon the government to ask the PURC to cause the immediate suspension of the implementation of the hiked tariffs. The Ghana Timber Millers Organisation (GTMO) and the Timber Workers Union (TWU) of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) in a meeting a fortnight ago resolved to lay off 50,000 workers this year for the companies to remain in business and cope with the high utility tariffs. Source: Nana Addo Victory 2012 team