ECG lost GHS3.2 billion to illegal connections and non-payment – Energy Minister
Energy Minister Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh has bemoaned how the Electricity Company of Ghana lost GHS3.2 billion to illegal connections and non-payment of bills among others.
Addressing the press on Wednesday, Dr Prempeh said the ECG losses were from “our inability to pay, unwillingness to pay or power theft.”
He announced that the National Revenue Protection Taskforce was “out in full swing” to remedy this challenge with revenue.
“The National Revenue Protection Taskforce is going out because of the amount of energy ECG is putting in the system, it is not getting the commensurate amount of money back to ensure that it becomes commercially viable.”
So if ECG loses 400 million dollars, averagely…which company can be viable if you continue to lose the amount of money that the ECG losses,” Dr Prempeh asked
He reiterated that “every Ghanaian must be responsible and pay for the energy he or she consumes, or else you will be visited by the Revenue Protection Taskforce.”
Recently the Electricity Company of Ghana indicated its readiness to go after about 30 private and public institutions that owe it GHS120 million
Some of these said institutions owe as much as about GHS45 million and have not shown any commitment despite receiving disconnection notices from ECG.
The said institutions include the Ghana Airport, University of Ghana, Accra International Conference Center (AICC), Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) and Parliament.
