News:
June 10, 2025
The Majority Caucus on the Energy Committee has chided the Minority for deliberately politicizing a responsible policy decision aimed at securing a long term sustainability of the power sector.
The primary purpose of the bill, they stated, is to raise additional funds to deal with the mounting debt in the power sector as a result of the mismanagement of the sector by the previous administration.
The sector, he stated, as at December 2024, the energy sector debt in relation to power generation stood at $3.1billion , out of which $1.7billion is owed to Independent Power Producers (IPP) and currently running a monthly deficit of GHS2 billion in the power sector. “This is the reality not fiction. Figures are not government estimates, they are verifiable and have been validated by independent bodies”.
Mr Bedzra, the Chairman of the Committee also disclosed that thermal has dominated the power generation mix which is powered by liquid fuel and every year, the country spends over $1.2billion to run the thermal plants to keep the lights on.
He noted that the current electricity tariff does not include the cost of fuel, stating that if factored would have increased electricity tariff by over 50% and the government is not ready to impose that burden on any household.
Meanwhile, he stated that the GHC1 Levy
* will not increase the current fuel prices at the pump
* Fuel prices have already dropped significantly from over GHC 16 per litre in January 2025 to an average of GHC 12 per litre due to prudent economic management.
* Even with the GHC 1 levy, fuel remains significantly cheaper than it was earlier this year.
* Let me reiterate that, there will not be any increment in prices of fuel as the current market price still remains significantly lower than what Ghanaians were paying at the start of the year.
“This is not a deception, but a strategic and responsible way to raise funds without burdening the Ghanaian consumer with high electricity tariffs or erratic power supply.”
He expressed surprise at the conduct of the Minority stating that they were all present at the committee level when the decision on the GHS1levy was discussed and accepted without anyone walking out of the meeting.
“There is a difference between leadership and populism. Whiles they choose to criticize now without offering any lasting solutions throughout their eight (8) years in power, they must be told that we are focused on fixing the real issues.
We have not lied.
We have not hidden the truth.
We are transparent about the challenges and we are bold in implementing solutions that protect both the consumer and the future of our power sector.”
Ghanamps.com