Why electricity tariffs went up: PURC explains the 14.75% adjustment

In a recent discussion on Morning Starr with Naa Dedei Tettey, the Head of Research and Corporate Affairs at the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) spoke about electricity and water tariff adjustments. He defended the decision amid public concern.

The official explained that new tariffs were influenced by economic factors. They also resulted from a significant outstanding debt from previous quarters.

He stated, “It’s for the first two quarters of 2025. We have an outstanding debt of 976 million cedis from last quarters. We took 50 percent of that in addition to our current calculations.”

According to him, without previous arrears, the tariff would be around 6 percent. However, due to the outstanding debt, a larger adjustment was necessary. He added, “Because we have arrears to clear, we raised electricity tariffs to 14.75 percent.”

Despite this increase, he assured that the situation could have been worse. He noted that past tariff hikes were much higher: “We have seen increases of 29.96% and 18.36%.”

The official emphasized efforts to reduce consumer impact by limiting adjustments to only half of the outstanding debt.

“If we had included all 976 million cedis in debt, tariffs could reach around 24 percent,” he explained.

The decision to limit the increase to 14.75 percent was intentional. The commissioners aimed to lessen consumer burden by considering only half of the outstanding debt.

He concluded, “By taking on board only 50 percent of the debt, we reduced the tariff to 14.75 percent.”