The government’s efforts to stabilize the economy, according to Dr. Ibrahim Awal, Minister of Tourism, Arts, and Culture, have led to a recent rise in utility rates in the hospitality sector.
The sector minister explained that the decision to make the upward adjustment was made because the hospitality sector had not experienced a water and electricity tariff increase in the past four years.
Following a 167% increase in water and electricity rates in February of this year, the Ghana Hotels Association and the Ghana Progressive Hotels Association petitioned the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC), prompting Dr. Awal’s remarks.
“For four years, we did not increase tariffs. It is only now that we are facing some economic challenges and working to restore macroeconomic stability. Once we do that, it will be better than ‘dumsor’. Let’s not forget what happened before we came to power. Before 2017, we know what happened. We don’t want to go back to dumsor. Dumsor is devastating. Bear with us, we know that slowly we will stabilize the economy and this tariff adjustment will abate,” he said.
Meanwhile, Akwasi Agyeman, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Ghana Tourism Authority, has announced that a meeting with hoteliers will be held to address their concerns.
“We had even requested for a meeting with PURC on this, and we are going to follow through. I am happy that at least they also added their voice to our concerns. We sympathize with them. Obviously, if hotels can operate more effectively and efficiently, some of these tariffs have to be looked at. But we are also mindful of the fact that they say an expensive electricity is better than no electricity. So let’s see how we work together to resolve it,” he said.
Source-Citinewsroom
