Sachet water goes up to Ghp 30 from Feb 1

The price of a sachet of water has been increased from 20Gp to 30Gp by the National Association of Sachet and Packaged Water Producers (NASPWP).

The retail price of a bag of water that contains 30 sachets, which used to be GH¢3 or GH¢3.50, depending on the brand, will now be GH¢5 as a result of the increment, which takes effect from February 1, 2016.

The price of bottled water, however, remains unchanged.

Announcing the price changes at a press conference in Accra yesterday, the President of NASPWP, Mr Magnus Nunoo, stated that the price adjustment was necessitated by the recent utility and fuel price hikes, as well as the high cost of plastic materials.

According to him, the sachet water industry had been badly affected by the hikes, since fuel, electricity and water were vital components of the operations of the industry.

Hikes
The Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC), in December last year, increased water and electricity tariffs by 67.2 and 59.2 per cent, respectively, while petroleum products were increased by 27 per cent.

However, according to Mr Nunoo, sachet and bottled water producers were being charged more than what the PURC announced.

“With regard to water, the rate for sachet water has moved from GH¢3.8 to GH¢11.21 per cubic metre, representing an increase of 195 per cent, while the rate for bottled water has now increased from GH¢10.7 to GH¢50.76 per cubic metre, representing an increase of more than 400 per cent,” he said.

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Discriminatory rates
Mr Nunoo described the new rates for sachet and bottled water producers as discriminatory, since other commercial users of water were being charged less.

“The rates for other industrial consumers such as alcoholic and soft drink producers have been increased by 165 per cent, even though 95 per cent of their final product is water. It, therefore, baffles our mind that the PURC will show such bias in fixing rates for other industrial or commercial users. For now we can only assume that this was an oversight and that the PURC will take immediate steps to correct this bias,” he added.

Further increment
Mr Nunoo, who is also the Chief Executive Officer of Mobile Water, indicated that sachet water producers might be forced to further increase the price of sachet water if the PURC did not heed to their call to adjust water rates to a standard commercial rate of GH¢10.07 per cubic metre.