Financial Analyst, Sydney Casely-Hayford says Ghana is rapidly becoming an expensive nation to live in due to the economic hardships and the frequent increases in utility tariffs.
“Ghana is becoming very, very, very expensive,” he lamented.
According to him, a website he visited which compares the cost of living across countries and “if you go in there and you look at Ghana’s position…you will find that in every indicator, Ghana is always too high in cost, too low on benefits and it’s a frightening thing.”
The Public Utilities and Regulatory Commission (PURC) has increased tariffs of electricity and water by 12.09% and 6.05% respectively for the second quarter of the year using the Automatic Adjustment Formula.
It, however, announced a deferment of the implementation date from April 1, 2014 to a new date which is yet to be announced.
The Automatic Adjustment Formula is a pricing mechanism based on factors that reflect the actual cost of electricity and water supply.
The PURC started using this formula from January 1 with an upward adjustment in tariffs.
Responding to the recent increment announcement on Citi FM’s The Big Issue, Mr. Casely-Hayford demanded that the PURC should enlighten Ghanaians on “what goes into the formula and how it is calculated.”
He said it will enable consumers to be clear on “what weighting they give to every single item in that formula and how we ended up at 12% so we can have an independent view.”
