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Press
Release
AFAG
October 01. 2014
Another Utility Increase; Unbearable hardship-Time
to strike
The Alliance for Accountable Governance (AFAG) is
unhappy about the increase in utility tariffs, which
take effect from Wednesday October 1st 2014 as
announced by the Public Utility Regulatory
Commission (PURC). This is a slap in the face of
Ghanaians.
In the midst of the current economic hardships
triggered by excessive corruption vis-a-vis the
inability of the utility companies to justify the
relevance of previous price increases, we consider
this latest increase in utility tariffs an exercise
of bad faith.
Simply put, what has happened to:
(i) The judgment by the supreme court for Woyome to
refund over 50 million Ghana cedis then equivalent
to $50million to the state?
(ii) The ruling by Justice Dotse in the famous
‘create, loot & share’ for Waterville to refund to
the state An amount of €22 million;
(iii) The over $ 400 million missing in the GYEEDA
project;
(iv) Elvis Afriyie Ankrah & Adu Asare who supervised
wasteful expenditure of millions of dollars at the
world cup causing Ghana's poor performance in
Brazil;
(v) The various rent scandals rocking the
consolidated fund;
Mr. President, these are but a few of the itemized
list of corrupt practices. The full list will be
made available soon to Ghanaians. Be it as it may,
your indecision has cost Ghana a great deal.
Moving forward, we believe the PURC has no
justification for the recent hikes? According the
press release by PURC for automatic adjustments for
the 1st quarter from January 1st -March 31st, the
increases were because of:
(i) Ghana cedi-US dollar exchange rate
(ii) Inflation
(iii) World market prices of crude oil
Currently, we hear the cedi is appreciating against
the dollar. Furthermore, inflation is stable at
15.9%. Additionally World market prices of crude oil
have not increased and less than 100 USD per barrel
(far lesser than the oil shocks of 2008 where prices
soared to over $140/bbl).
The "dumsor" has become "dumkoraa". This is
inexcusable.
This attempt to increase utilities will cause a
general increase in prices of goods and worsen the
already deplorable economic status of the Ghanaian,
which is largely as a result of the poor management
of the economy by the Mahama-Arthur Amissah-NDC
government.
President Mahama, you said no more taxes, yet you
have introduced over 165 new taxes.
You said fuel prices will be reduced drastically
when it was GHC 3.00 a gallon at $100/bbl on the
international market, Yet at the current price of
$95 it is GHC15.00 per gallon. This is unrealistic.
Mr. President you said when elected, "dumsor dumsor"
will be a thing of the past. Remember:
Haruna Iddrisu on the floor of parliament in 2007!
“.... Mr. Speaker the worst crisis today in Ghana is
the energy crisis and my first issue is to establish
that, this government (NPP) has no excuse, Mr.
Speaker no excuse whatsoever to have plunge this
country into this darkness. Irresponsibility on the
part of government that they could have avoided this
crisis, they could have avoided the darkness, Mr.
Speaker with all the material evidence available
before them.... Mr. Speaker, I repeat this
government has no excuse in plunging this country
into darkness"
Mr. President, for your information, Ghanaians were
better off relatively with a "dumsor/timetable to a
dumkoraa" without timetable which makes no sense
In this regard, AFAG is urging all Ghanaians, far
and near, home and abroad to join in the show of
support through a massive demonstration in Accra. We
will communicate the date by next week as we serve
notice to the Ghana Police Service.
We urge the Ghana Police Service to stay away from
interfering in our quest. No more orders from above
to impede the will of the people. Simply put, don’t
attempt a court order again to prevent an AFAG DEMO,
as this has been your stock-in-trade.
We need economic freedom now!!!
Victoria Ascerta, the battle continues.
Signed:
Davis Opoku- 0244861593
Abu Ramadan-0244570006
Wesley Owusu- 0544759734
Henry Haruna Asante- 0248274646
Arnold Boateng- 0209830546
Dr. Nana Ayew Afriyie- 0501287870 |
