By Hafsa Obeng
Accra, Sept. 4, GNA – The Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA) has called on the Public Utility Regulatory Commission (PURC) to properly classify the tourism and hospitality industry .
The GTA said the move would reduce the cost of doing business and make the sector more competitive.
“It is also about categorization of the hoteliers and where we have been placed. If we look at it critically there are residential, commercial, and industrial tariffs. If you take someone who has a budget hotel in a residential area, the person may be paying residential tariffs because of where they are located.”
Mr Akwasi Agyeman, Chief Executive Officer of GTA’s call follows the request by the Ghana Hotels Association (GHA) to the PURC to enforce its directive to the Ghana Water Company to reverse the price adjustment from February to May 2023.
The GHA stated in its petition to the PURC that the tariff adjustment had resulted in huge debts for its members over the months
It said that instead of the Commission’s announced 8.3 per cent increase in water tariff, which took effect on February 1, 2023, members instead saw a 16.7 per cent rise.
According to the Association, this continued until May 2023, despite a series of petitions and responses to and from the PURC, as well as a directive issued to Ghana Water Company in April 2023 to reclassify all non-residential customers who had been misclassified as “other commercial” back to “non-residential consumer category.”
Mr Agyeman expressed the GTA’s sympathies with the Association but was happy that it had added its voice to the GHA’s.
“Even before the petition, the GTA had written to the PURC and requested a meeting on that, and we will follow through because we sympathize with them.
“Obviously if hotels can operate more effectively and efficiently, some of these tariffs must be looked at…but we are also mindful that we do not want a situation where there will be no water or electricity for them to operate.
“Expensive electricity is better than no electricity,” he said.
Mr. Agyeman was hopeful that things would be done properly, saying, “It is an engagement and a process, and we are working on that.”
GNA