Industry players and organised labour have described the increases in water and electricity tariffs by the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) as outrageous and unacceptable. They are of the view that considering the already harsh economic situation and wage levels in the country, the increases, if allowed to stay, will deal a severe blow to the economic recovery effort. In separate interviews with the Daily Graphic in Accra Monday, the industry players, including the Executive Secretary of the Chamber of Mines, Ms Joyce Aryee; an industrialist, Bernard Ocansey, and the Secretary-General of the Trades Union Congress (TUC), Mr Kofi Asamoah, were unanimous in their assertions that the increases should be rejected for the government to take a second look at them. Mr Asamoah was angry that the input of organised labour during the discussion period had been rejected and hinted that agitation by workers to get the action reversed should not be ruled out. He wondered how, in the face of "such poor services being rendered by the utility services, anybody can justify such outrageous increases" and indicated that the leadership of workers would meet to decide on an appropriate action. He said the TUC would debate the increases with the government because salaries in the country were generally low and any increase in tariffs should take that into consideration. Ms Aryee said the increases "are killing" and stressed the need for something to be done about them. Mr Ocancey, for his part, said industry and commerce would suffer, pointing out that business people would react by laying off workers to worsen the unemployment situation in the country. Earlier, the Chief Executive Officer of the Consumer Protection Agency, Mr Kofi Kapito, had threatened to sue the PURC should it go ahead to increase utility tariffs. He said considering the inadequacies in the supply of water and electricity; it would be unjustifiable to increase utility tariffs. The PURC yesterday announced a total of 125 per cent increase in utility bills. That followed an upward adjustment of 89 per cent in electricity and 36 per cent in water tariffs. The Chairman of the PURC, Mr Emmanuel K. Annan, who made the announcement at a news conference in Accra, explained that the increases were arrived at after a wide range of individual and institutional stakeholders consultation to solicit for views. Source: Daily Graphic/Ghana