Ghana’s Consumer Protection Agency says increases in fuel prices, utility tariffs are too much

His comment is coming after fuel prices, electricity and water tariffs were increased.

Meanwhile, the Communication Service Tax (CST) has also been increased to 9%. The CST took effect from October 1.

The Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) also announced an increase in electricity tariffs by 5.94% and water tariffs by 2.22% on Monday (September 30, 2019).

This happened after the electricity tariff was increased by 11.17% back in June this year.

The PURC said that the factors that caused the increase include the Cedi-US dollar exchange rate, inflation, the price of crude oil and Natural Gas, fuel mix, generation mix, and the power purchase cost.

Commenting on this, Mr Kapito said the recent hikes may force some consumers into trying to cheat the system.

“The reason why we want people to stop doing illegal connections and make sure they pay bills on time is to give a reliable and efficient supply.”

“At this point, people will start stealing electricity again. People will start doing all kinds of things because the average workers salary hasn’t been increased.”