Electricity, water tariffs go up

The Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) has announced an upward review of water and electricity tariffs for the fourth quarter of the year.

The tariffs, which take effect from today, October 1, 2019, will see water go up by 2.22 per cent, while electricity goes up by 5.94 per cent across the board for all customers.

A statement signed by the Executive Secretary of the PURC, Mrs Mami Dufie Ofori, said the increment was determined by the Automated Adjustment Formula (AAF), a tariff mechanism that seeks to track and incorporate movement in key determining factors to reflect the real cost of electricity and water quarterly.

This last quarter increment, according to the statement, was done taking into consideration some factors, which include inflation, the cedi-US dollar exchange rate, the price of crude oil, natural gas and fuel mix.

The power purchase cost, demand forecast and the cost of electricity (a major cost component in water production) also influenced the latest increment.

Meanwhile, the Communications Service Tax (CST), which has gone up from six per cent to nine per cent, will also take effect from today.