Denzel Kwesi Humpreys, a member of the Ghana Hotels Association, claims that the current economic crisis is making life for Ghanaians intolerable.
His remark followed the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission’s (PURC) August 15, 2022 announcement of a new tariff increase.
According to Mr. Humpreys, hotels cannot charge their guests an additional 12.55% for water and a 27.15% increase for energy.
He explained that charging customers for excessive utility costs will discourage them from using their services and booking hotel rooms.
Humpreys stated, “You can’t certainly pass on bills to consumers because at the end of the day then nobody will show up at your hotel and that is extremely difficult,” on JoyNews’ PM Express on August 15, 2022.
You can’t just say, “Okay, power rates have gone up, thus my room rate will have to go up automatically. We have to create place for the rates that we are taking as of two years ago.
To be honest with you, it makes my life difficult.” he said.
The PURC highlighted that these additional tariffs will go into effect on September 1, 2022, a Thursday.
The Executive Secretary of the PURC, Dr. Ishmael Ackah, stated in a press release seen by GhanaWeb that “In balancing the interests of service providers and consumers, the PURC acknowledged that the very economic variables that have occasioned the steep increases proposed by the service providers also affect consumers.”
“The Commission did concede that some utility rate hikes were unavoidable if the country was to avoid another dumsor and all of its consequences, including job losses.
In light of this, the Commission decided to raise the average end-user price for electricity by 27.15 percent and for water by 21.5 percent starting on September 1, 2022 “the announcement said in part.
According to sections 3(c) of the PURC Act 1997, according to Dr. Ackah, these tariffs represented the positions of all parties involved in the utilities sector (Act 538).
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