Opposition says PURC tariff cuts don’t go far enough
The Public Utilities Regulatory Commission’s announcement of reductions in electricity and water tariffs was met with a swift and pointed response from the Minority in Parliament: welcome, but nowhere near enough.
Deputy Ranking Member of Parliament’s Energy Committee, Collins Adomako Mensah, delivered the critique in direct terms, arguing that the adjustments, an average 4.81 percent reduction in electricity tariffs and 3.06 percent for water, both effective April 1, 2026, fall well short of what Ghanaian consumers actually need after years of punishing utility costs.
“The Regulatory Commission announced reductions in electricity and water tariffs, but we say plainly this reduction is insufficient and Ghanaian consumers deserve far better,” he said.
The Minority’s case is not built on political instinct alone, it rests on an analysis of PURC’s own quarterly data for 2025, which they argue reveals a consistent pattern of overestimation in both inflation and exchange rate projections. Those overestimates, they contend, have been baked into tariff calculations in ways that have systematically disadvantaged consumers, and which make the current modest reductions an inadequate correction.
The figures Adomako Mensah cited are striking. In the first and second quarters of 2025, PURC projected an inflation rate of 22.49 percent against an actual average of 20.3 percent, an over-projection of 2.19 percentage points. By the third quarter, the gap had widened dramatically: the Commission projected 20.67 percent inflation when the actual figure came in at 11 percent, an over-projection of 9.67 percentage points.
If tariffs were calibrated to inflation figures that turned out to be significantly higher than reality, the logical conclusion, which the Minority is drawing explicitly, is that consumers have been overcharged and that the current reductions represent only a partial correction of that imbalance.
“In quarter one and quarter two, the commission projected an inflation rate of 22.49 per cent against an actual average of 20.3 per cent, an over-projection of 2.19 points. In quarter three, the projection was 20.67 per cent when the actual figure was 11 per cent, an over-projection of 9.67 points,” he noted.
Set against the backdrop of rising fuel and energy costs that are simultaneously squeezing households and businesses from other directions, the Minority argues that a five percent electricity tariff reduction is simply inadequate to the moment.
“The ongoing increases in fuel and energy costs are squeezing households and businesses from multiple fronts. A mere 5 per cent reduction does not go far enough,” Adomako Mensah said, with the opposition pressing instead for reductions of up to 10 percent to deliver relief that is actually felt.
PURC’s tariff adjustments form part of its routine quarterly review process, designed to reflect real-time changes in exchange rates, inflation, and operational costs within the energy sector. But as Ghana’s cost-of-living pressures continue to mount and the gap between policy adjustments and household reality remains wide, the debate over the adequacy of those adjustments is unlikely to quieten anytime soon.
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