Business News of Saturday, 28 September 2013

Source: peacefmonline

Ghana Water Company unhappy with 52% tariff Increment

The Chief Manager in charge of Public Relations at the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL), Michael Agyemang, has expressed his dissatisfaction with the tariff percentage allotted to his outfit by the Public Utilities and Regulatory Commission (PURC).

Mr. Michael Agyemang was unhappy that the management of PURC only allocated 52% of the tariff increment to the Ghana Water Company when the company had initially requested an increment of 112% in tariffs on its service delivery.

According to him, even though the company does not totally despise the percentage given to it, the management, however, noted that the recent increment will not make a vast difference, and further explained that with the 52% tariff hike, the company can only charge less than GHc1.29 pesewas, representing 112% on the water bills.

“The tariff is now going to put us in a position where we will be able to pay for our electricity cost, pay for the chemicals that we import…So, when these are done, I think that it’s going to improve upon our service delivery.” he stated.

Nonetheless, he was optimistic the new tariff increases will aid the company to streamline its operations because GWCL is "going to check our leakages. We are just going to make sure that illegal connections are checked because we are going to perhaps undertake the laying of new pipe lines…”

He further assured the general public that the company will resolve the water shortages "by the close of next year," but expressed in a nutshell that management is “not very happy but at least, we should be grateful for the percentage given to us so far.”