A meeting between Vice-President John Mahama and executives of labour and industry unions has decided that a technical committee will debate how much increase in utility tariffs is 'reasonable'. The Ghana Trades Union Congress (GTUC) and the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI) have since late May when the Public Utilities Regulation Commission (PURC) announced tariff hikes in electricity and water, condemned the increases, explaining that they posed a serious threat to the survial of industry and jobs. While calling for the suspension of the new tariffs, they also threatened demonstrations to back their demands. Following the development, the government urged the PURC to meet with stakeholders and agree on a common ground. Joy FM’s presidential affairs correspondent, Elvis Adjetey, said Thursday's meeting was chaired by the Vice President who doubled as government’s representative in the meeting. Some of the proposals considered at the meeting included the provision of subsidies by asking the PURC to reduce the tariffs, a relook at the criteria for calculating the tariffs and also the periodic increases in place of the one-time increment. But the government maintained that due to the independence of the PURC, it cannot be forced to implement those proposals but assured that there are rooms for negotiations to consider the options. Elvis Adjetey reported that members of the GTUC came out of the meeting expressing mixed reactions. Whilst some were disappointed that no immediate closure was arrived to end their agitations, others were optimistic the meeting was a step in the right direction in addressing their concerns. Dawson Amoah, Vice President of AGI, confirmed to Joy News that the meeting ended without any agreement but was confident something good would be achieved at the end. “Honestly this government has really indicated that it is a listening government. Thoroughly we have discussed issues…it is not conclusive yet, but I can confidently say that there is really light at the end of the tunnel.” But Deputy Minister of Information, James Agyenim-Boateng had a different opinion about the outcome of the meeting. He told Joy News the meeting arrived at a decision after a “fruitful discussion”, which even produced additional proposals from either side. He was happy about the outcome of the meeting. “All interest groups would bring their experts to sit down and relook into the issue or consider all the major issues which were tabled. And we felt for us that there was an agreement. Indeed all sides had an understanding that that was a very significant breakthrough.” He was hopeful in a matter of days, the issues raised “would conclusively be hammered out”. Early on in the day, members of the Industrial and Commercial Workers Union, staged a demonstration in Accra to back their demands for an immediate suspension of the 89 per cent (electricity) and 36 per cent (water) tariffs increases. A similar demonstration was held in Kumasi, the Ashanti Regional capital. Story by Isaac Essel/Myjoyonline.com/Ghana