- Power subsidies cannot be sustained, says Ghanaian Expert
- Ghanaian government pays at least $4 billion in electricity subsidies
A Senior Ghanaian Economist, Mr Habibu Adams, speaking during a seminar organised by the Ghana News Agency (GNA), has stated that the Ghanaian government has spent at least $4 billion on electricity sector subsidies. Mr Adams, however, has added that it has become unrealistic to continue these payments.
“You realised that for the last two years, there hasn’t been any adjustment (to electricity tariffs) and what we are currently paying now is even lower than what we were paying in 2015, but somebody has to pay for that, and the government is paying a lot.” Mr Adams stated.
“For instance, if you look at August, the invoice was about GH¢900 million and the money collected by ECG after taking out all other statutory deduction what was left was GH¢540 million,” he added.
“The money that was required to pay all those in the value chain was about GH¢900 million, so about GH¢300 million was outstanding, and that is just monthly so, it means we don’t pay the right tariff,” Adams noted.
Mr Adams added that the financial burden from subsidy payments have caused a shortage of revenue for the federal government and has caused challenges in the operations of the ECG.