By Jibril Abdul Mumuni
Accra, Aug. 1, GNA – The Minister of Finance, Mr. Ken Ofori-Atta says the government is engaging the Independent Power Producers on debt relief for the energy sector.
He announced this during the Mid-year budget review in Parliament on Monday in accordance with the Public Financial Management Act.
Mr. Ofori-Atta acknowledged that IPP power payments remained a critical challenge to the economy.
He said the government was currently collaborating with the IPPs to address the impact of excess capacity on the economy.
To this end, he said the government had engaged the IPPs to restructure the accrued outstanding balances and eliminate arrears in the sector.
In the attempt to reduce excess capacity commitments, the minister said the government had renegotiated the Gas Sales Agreement between VRA and N-Gas.
In the area of alternative energy, he said the government had shortlisted vendor companies and countries to develop Ghana’s first nuclear power plant.
He also said the government had engaged some companies to identify an economic resilient nuclear power technology for Ghana as a clean source of energy.
To lessen the strain the energy sector places on the public purse, he called for a collective effort to assist the Electricity Company of Ghana in its revenue collection exercise.
He explained that the implementation of the Cash Waterfall Mechanism(CWM) and Natural Gas clearing had improved the equitable distribution of revenues in the energy sector.
He said the CWM was being reformed to ensure mandatory compliance to provide cash flow to the IPPs.
GNA