The Minority in Parliament has announced plans to summon the Management of the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) to justify the recently announced 2.45 percent increase in electricity tariffs.
Effective July 1, 2025, electricity consumers will be billed accordingly.
The Minority group says key economic indicators such as gas prices, the exchange rate, and inflation have remained relatively stable, and therefore do not warrant an upward adjustment in electricity prices.
Addressing the media, the Ranking Member on Parliament’s Energy Committee, George Kwame Aboagye, described the tariff increment as unacceptable.
“Gas price has not gone up. Exchange rate is going down. These are some of the factors. Exchange rate, the highest for this year was I think 15.5 to 7 dollars. Okay, that was the highest in this year. The lowest was 10.20. Currently, exchange rate is 10.30. So, why increasing? An inflation rate. Okay, these are the three factors,” he noted.
According to Mr Aboagye, “The inflation asset match was 22.4 percent. April was 21.2 percent. May, 18.4 percent. And then June, the research says it’s going to be around 16 percent. So, all the three factors. It doesn’t have to be an increase because all the factors are going down. So, we urge PURC to come up and (1:00) explain to Ghanaians. And I’m going to also inform my chairman, that is the committee chairman, (1:06) to summon PURC to come to the committee and come and explain to us.
“We can’t accept this, that all of a sudden you just say you are increasing electricity tariffs to 2.45 percent without any explanation. What are the causes? We’re supposed to even have a relief. It’s supposed to go down for Ghanaians to accept it,” he stressed.
He further noted that, “when you compare Ghana, a lifeline consumer, okay, a lifeline consumer in Ghana pays 0.05 kilowatts per hour in dollar terms. Okay, that’s lifeline. A standard residential, all of you, I know you are a standard residential. You are not lifeline because you are working. So, a standard residential also has to, supposed to pay around 0.12 to 0.16 in dollar terms per kilowatt per hour. When you compare to Cote d’Ivoire, okay, it’s the same. So, why are you going to increase now?”
On June 25, the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) announced a 2.45% increase in electricity tariffs for all categories of consumers. The new tariffs will take effect from July 1, 2025.
According to the PURC, the tariff adjustments are undertaken on a quarterly basis to maintain the real value of the tariffs and to keep the utility service providers financially viable to enable them deliver on their services to consumers.
However, water tariffs remains the same for the third quarter of the year.
In a statement issued on Wednesday, June 25, the PURC explained that the tariff adjustment have been carried out in line with the Commission’s Quarterly Tariff Review Mechanism which monitors and incorporates movements in key economic variables including the cedi-to-dollar exchange rate, inflation, the electricity generation mix, and the cost of fuel, mainly natural gas.
According to the Commission, these factors significantly impact the cost of delivering utility services and must be reviewed regularly to sustain the financial health of service providers.
Breakdown of Factors Considered
Key variables influencing the new electricity rates include:
Exchange rate: GHS10.3052 per US dollar
Inflation: 20.67% projected annual average
Natural gas price: The applicable average cost of Gas is USD 7.7134/MMBtu increasing from USD 7.6289/MMBtu in the second quarter review of 2025.
Hydro-Thermal mix: 28.8% hydro and 71.2% thermal
Outstanding revenue: GHS488 million carried over from previous quarters
Reserve Capacity: The inclusion of reserve capacity for grid stability and reliability.
Cost of Fuel: The inclusion of 27% of the cost of alternative fuels such as Distillate Fuel Oil (DFO), Heavy Fuel Oil (HFO) and Light Crude Oil (LCO).
New Electricity Tariffs
Lifeline customers (0–30 kWh): Increase from 77.6274 to 79.5308 GHp/kWh
Residential (301+ kWh): Up from 232.3892 to 238.0873 GHp/kWh
Non-residential (301+ kWh): Increased from 197.3338 to 202.1723 GHp/kWh
High Voltage Mines: Up from 495.9255 to 508.0854 GHp/kWh
Service charges across categories remain unchanged.
Water Tariffs Unaffected
All water rates across residential, non-residential, commercial, industrial, and institutional categories remain unchanged. The Commission justified this freeze as part of efforts to ease the burden on consumers while maintaining quality service.
The Commission thanked all stakeholders for their support as it continues to implement the Quarterly Tariff Reviews per its Rate Setting Guidelines to address changes in operational conditions of the service providers.
PURC assured that it will continue to monitor the operations of the regulated service providers and hold them accountable to its regulatory standards and benchmarks to ensure value for money and improved quality of service delivery.
