In a recent tour of the Greater Accra Region, President John Mahama urged Ghanaians to exercise restraint as government works assiduously to offer them relief in electricity bills.
In a statement the company said “the Electricity Company of Ghana Limited wish to inform their cherished customers that the utility relief by Government of Ghana is being implemented and therefore the ‘reckoner’will guide Customers on money paid and the corresponding units to customers.”
“The new reckoner incorporates the directive for ECG to make the applicable electricity rate for 0-50 units of consumption inclusive so that all residential customers will enjoy the rate for lifeline customers. It also provides a subsidy which is energy based for industrial and commercial customer,” the statement added.
Reckoner is a table or device designed to assist with calculation.
Below is the table released by the ECG to assist with the calculations.
According to the president, the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) will from July 1, 2016 begin implementing a new billing cycle which would address concerns of overbilling.
President Mahama said “Because the electricity billing is done in monthly cycles, they have to start on the first of a month with the billing cycle. So I have asked Ghanaians to exercise patience, from first July they’d start the new billing cycle and I’m sure that a lot of us will see some relief in the electricity bills.”
“I’ve explained that the bills went so high because the waters in our hydro dams are low and hydro is the cheapest source of power. Now all the power we are produce is either with gas or with crude oil and these are more expensive that hydro.
“But we are praying that this year the rains would be good so that the dams would recover. As we put in cheaper hydro power we will adjust the tariff to reflect the cheaper power we are getting.“So I would ask Ghanaians to exercise patience, government is sensitive to what is going on and we’d do our best to give them some relief” the president said.
The Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) last month ordered the ECG to suspend the implementation of the current billing software “until further notice.”
This followed complaints from customers who use the post-paid meters that they are being overcharged after the new tariff implementation.
But in a statement, the ECG said it has “taken note of the various complaints from customers and stakeholders regarding meters and billing.”
ECG further assured Ghanaians that anomalies associated with its new billing software will be addressed by the end of June, 2016.