Consumers of utility services may now heave a sigh of relief, following government’s decision to further reduce the tariffs to lessen their burden. Government has allocated GH¢20 million as subsidy to help reduce the rates for all the different categories of consumers.

This was the outcome of consultations among the government, the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI) and the Trades Union Congress, after their agitation for further reduction in tariffs to save domestic consumers and industry from the stranglehold of the high tariffs announced by the Public Utility Regulatory Commission (PURC).

A dependable source told the Times newspaper yesterday, that the commission will soon announce the new measures to bring relief to consumers.

Under the new rates, residential tariffs will be further adjusted downwards by 13.7 percent from the current 38.9 percent. Industry will also enjoy between two and four percent reduction rates from the current 144 percent.

The source said the parties involved were optimistic that the reduction in the utility tariffs would cushion consumers although that AGI had asked that the current tariff increase for industry should be reduced from 144 percent to 90 percent.

A technical committee set up by the government to review the utility tariffs announced by the PURC agreed on a 10 percent subsidy across board for all the different customer classes, which translated into a total of GH 115 million reduction in revenue to the utility companies.