Domestic consumers of electricity in the Ashanti Region have sent an SOS message to the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) to withdraw immediately all the M-Smart pre-paid metres that have been installed in their various homes.

They want the new metres to be replaced with the previous Pay-and-Smile metering system.

According to the consumers, ever since the M-Smart metring system were installed, their bills have almost tripled.

They are convinced that the new metring system is just an avenue by the ECG to rip them off their hard earned money.

“I am wondering why the ECG brought in these metres. As soon as you buy the credit and load it, before you realise you are already in darkness again. This is thievery. Why should they (ECG) do that. These meters in my view are not for domestic use”, noted an aggrieved consumer who wanted to remain anonymous.

Another consumer, Felix Asamoah, a resident of Danyame told Kasapafmonline.com that he now spends GH?80.00 every three days to light up his two-bedroom house, unlike the GH?70.00 he expended every fortnight when he was using the Pay-and-smile pre-metering system.

Last year, the ECG, Ashanti Region, took the decision to replace all their meters because they were losing lots of revenue as a result of some challenges those devices were encountering.

They, therefore, decided to pilot the project in some communities before finally rolling it to cover the entire region.

But the feedback from the communities they have covered so far is not encouraging.

Erasmus Baidoo, Ashanti Regional Public Relations Officer of the company, told journalists that they took the decision to replace the old meters because “a lot of people were complaining about their services”.

He said what has triggered the high cost of the utility is the recent increment they are implementing.