The Electricity Company of Ghana Ltd (ECG) has proposed between 60 and 100 percent adjustment in utility tariffs to the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC). The proposals, if approved by the PURC, would lead to the payment of rates the ECG says will enable it recover full cost of operations. However, the Chairman of the PURC, Mr Kwame Pianim, and the Executive Secretary, Mr Stephen Adu, while admitting the receipt of proposals for the upward adjustment in tariffs by the EGG, assured Ghanaians that inefficient costs in the generation and distribution of electricity would not be passed on to consumers. According to Mr Pianim, the country is at a crossroad, where Ghanaians have to choose between the payment of "right tariffs for the sustainability of the energy sector or the payment of rates that would result in the stagnation of the sector and also a retardation in the country's growth." In a cost and benefit analysis of the two scenarios, Mr Pianim said the energy crisis and subsequent load management programme had cost the country about two percent of its Gross Domestic Products (GDP) and industries about five percent of their output. He pointed out that each Ghanaian had faced the inconvenience of the situation, the cost of which, if monetised, would be astronomical for all households. "There is a choice to be made by Ghanaians," he said, and noted that "whether to stick to the inconvenience and cost of the interruptions in power supply we all faced or pay right tariffs with a sustainable and uninterrupted service," he said. Mr Pianim said the implementation of a full cost-recovery measure would be gradual and not abrupt, while policy directives would be taken to make sure that consumers and service providers both did not lose out. He mentioned one such policy initiative already being implemented as the importation of the six million Compact Fluorescent Lamps (CFLs) by the government. He said if the lamps were properly installed and faithfully used by all Ghanaians, most households would have a reduction in the lighting component of their ECG bills. Mr Pianim said the government alone could no longer invest in the energy sector and the participation of private entrepreneurs required the payment of realistic rates to sustain investors in the sector. Source: Daily Graphic