The Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) has sensitized Students of the Tamale College of Education (TACE) on the tariff setting process in the country.
This is part of the commission’s nationwide agenda to raise awareness on the recent tariff adjustment.
The programme is initiated to enhance understanding of the tariff-setting process and promote responsible consumption practices among consumers.
The Executive Secretary of PURC, Dr Ishmael Ackah in an interview noted some of students are leaving in rented apartments and therefore pay electricity and water bills.
“Again, especially in the colleges of education, these are potential teachers; so they will go out there and educate others and they also have friends and family in the house, so we felt that by engaging them – it will help transform their own consumption, let them understand what we do, let them understand the tariff process and also educate others and educate others on what we do and help be ambassadors of efficiency,” he added.
Tariff windows
Dr Ismael Ackah said there are two windows of tariff adjustment which is the major tariff review and quarterly adjustments.
He stated there is a base in setting up the major tariff and the consideration of capital investment, operations and maintenance among other things.
“But after that, we do the quarterly adjustment and in doing the adjustment, we consider some four factors and two of them are inflation and the exchange rate. We also look at the cost of fuel and the energy mix every quarter to see whether the tariff should remain the same, it should go up or it should come down; we compare with what we forecasted, if the actual is lower than what we forecasted, the tariff would reduce – if the actual is same as we forecasted, it is still the same or if it is more, then we increase the tariff,” he further explained.
When asked whether consumers should anticipate any tariff increment in the next quarter, the PURC Boss said it will be difficult for now to predict there would be any increment but indicated prices can remain the same if the factors are constant, stressing it can reduce or it can go up.
The SRC President of the college, Suale Razak, commended the utility regulator for engaging the student body to tell them about the mandate of the commission and educate them on the tariff adjustment process.
He noted the education received was impactful as it will help them to also disseminate the same information to their families and communities when they return home.
Imoro Mohammed Sheriff, a trainee told THE CUSTODIAN that the programme has been very beneficial to him, explaining initially he didn’t know about the existence of the PURC until the day of the forum.
“Some of us didn’t know there was anything like PURC, it is this programme that we got to realize that there is an organization like that and they are ready to help us anytime we’re facing electricity crisis,” he said.
