The Communications Director of the Convention Peoples’ Party (CPP), Nii Armah Akomfrah says the Automatic Tariff Adjustment Formula which requires quarterly review of utility tariffs must be scrapped.

He says the policy is ill-advised and does not serve any purpose.

The Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC), consistent with the formula, this week announced a 6.54% and 4.54% increases in electricity and water tariffs respectively.

But speaking on Joy FM and MultiTV’s news analysis programme, Newsfile, Saturday, Mr. Akomfrah questioned the rationality of the current increase in utility prices. 

The PURC has blamed the increase on the cedi-dollar exchange rate, inflation, the increasing price of crude oil on which power plants rely to generate electicity.

Mr. Akomfrah, however insists that Ghanaians cannot be expected to accept the raise in tariff costs under the current conditions.

He recounted the Commission's previous assertions, whilst justifying similar increments, that it was going to ensure that consumers have value for money through improvement in service quality, and deplored the decline in the situation.

“Given the situation where you have an automatic system which is escalating prices all the time….and a declining service…do you not pause to review that situation?

"How do you continue with a train…a driverless train that is just escalating prices, declining services? We cannot continue,” he stated.

When asked by Host Samson Lardy Anyenini whether the driverless train should be scrapped, Nii Armah replied with an emphatic “YES!”

TUC protest

The Trades Union Congress (TUC), yesterday, warned government and the PURC if they do not reverse the recent hikes in prices of utilities, labour will resort to another crippling street protest.

In a strongly worded statement, the TUC maintained that the cedi's exchange rate gains should have been factored into the recent pricing formula to reflect a reduction instead of an increase.

Secretary-General for the TUC, Kofi Asamoah, told Joy News' Francis Abban Friday that over 500,000 members of the workers' union are very likely to resist the new hikes.