ACCRA— The Ghana Union of Traders’ Associations (GUTA) has strongly petitioned the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) to halt its newly approved utility tariff increases scheduled to take effect on July 1, 2026.
The trading association’s fierce opposition follows an announcement by the PURC on Monday, June 22, detailing its third-quarter tariff adjustments. Under the new directive, electricity tariffs are set to rise by 3.49% across all customer categories, while water tariffs will experience an upward review of 0.85%. The regulatory commission defended the adjustments as part of its routine quarterly mandate, citing key economic triggers including domestic inflation, fuel costs, a hydro-thermal generation mix of 20.9% to 79.1%, and a 0.2% depreciation of the Ghana Cedi against the US Dollar.
However, in a robust counter-statement issued on Wednesday, June 24, GUTA completely rejected the PURC’s macroeconomic justifications, characterizing them as entirely untenable and an unnecessary burden on the private sector. GUTA argued that the economic fluctuations highlighted by the regulator are far too minimal to warrant a tariff hike that would drive up operating costs for businesses across the country.
Dissecting the data, the association pointed out that the cedi’s 4.18% average depreciation between April and May is insignificant, while the slight uptick in inflation from 3.4% to 3.7% is marginal at best. Furthermore, GUTA emphasized that commercial energy costs should actually be declining, given that petrol and diesel prices dropped by 9.3% and 1.7% respectively during the second pricing window of June.
With no operational breakdowns in the national power generation mix, GUTA maintains that there is no justifiable reason to penalize local businesses. The union has warned that passing the buck of public sector inefficiencies onto the commercial community will severely hamstring local trade, demanding an immediate suspension of the July 1 implementation to protect the survival of Ghanaian enterprises.
