The Consumer Protection Agency (CPA) has sharply criticised the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) over its newly introduced tariff changes, describing the verdict as “unrealistic” and insensitive to the commercial hardships going through Ghanaians.

The PURC this week introduced an upward evaluate of software price lists efficient 1 January 2026, with water price lists set to upward thrust by means of 15.92% and electrical energy price lists by means of 9.82%. But the CPA says the justification for those will increase lacks benefit and unfairly shifts the weight of systemic disasters onto customers.

According to the company, the PURC’s declare that the water tariff increment is had to allow the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) to buy further chemical substances to regard water polluted by means of unlawful mining (galamsey) is “shocking and bizarre.” The CPA argues that customers must now not endure the price of galamsey, which it insists is the results of regulatory lapses by means of the federal government.

The CPA additionally accuses the PURC of overlooking primary inefficiencies inside of software provider suppliers, together with the Electricity Company of Ghana’s (ECG) overspending, technical and business losses, and protracted operational shortcomings that proceed to inflate prices. It additional expressed fear concerning the absence of a concrete scaling to get better the large money owed owed by means of state establishments to each ECG and GWCL—money owed that considerably weaken the monetary balance of the utilities.

Beyond inefficiencies, the company notes that many Ghanaians in primary towns, together with Accra, Kumasi and Cape Coast, nonetheless lack get entry to to potable water, whilst those that are hooked up enjoy common rationing.

“Yet the PURC seems clueless about fixing these systemic problems but is always quick to increase tariffs,” CPA CEO Kofi Kapito lamented.

The CPA is subsequently urging the PURC to withdraw the introduced tariff changes and re-engage key stakeholders, together with the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI), the Trades Union Congress (TUC), and client teams, to broaden extra sustainable answers as a substitute of implementing regimen tariff hikes that “have never solved the challenges facing the utility providers.”

The company defined 3 key issues that will have to be addressed prior to any tariff build up can also be justified:

Unfairly passing galamsey-related prices to customers

Failure to deal with inefficiencies inside of software suppliers

Absence of a transparent IT to get better money owed owed by means of state establishments

The CPA maintains that customers must now not be made to pay for issues they didn’t create, insisting that significant reforms—now not routine tariff hikes—are the one trail to securing the way forward for Ghana’s software financial management.

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DISCLAIMER: The Views, Comments, Opinions, Contributions and Statements made by means of Readers and Contributors in this platform don’t essentially constitute the perspectives or coverage of Multimedia Group Limited.