Today is highly disappointed by the Public Utility Regulatory Commission (PURC) and government decision to marginally reduce utility tariffs for residential consumers from 42 per cent to 38.9 per cent in spite of the numerous agitations that the country has recorded in recent past.
It is the usual norm in established democracies in the world that governments show concern to its citizens in view of the fact that millions of people globally are trapped in abject poverty.
Not so, regrettably, in Ghana despite the pressing socio-economic challenges afflicting the masses, the NDC party that promised to create an enabling environment for businesses to grow during the campaign period is rather callously toying with the future of Ghanaians by this insignificant one per cent reduction.
Against such an inhumane measure, Today agrees wholeheartedly with the Trade Union Congress (TUC) for its outright rejection of the reduction that we consider laughable. Indeed, the TUC Secretary General, Mr. Kofi Asamoah, was right to label the reduction as a “populace move” at a press conference in Accra last Tuesday to press home their demands.
It is very surprising that the NDC government is not reflecting on the wisdom that the fear of a voter-backlash in 2012 when Ghanaians will go to the poll to elect a President is not guiding the actions of this government at this moment.
We on this paper, however, seize the opportunity to lament over the continuous reluctance on the part of the Mills administration to alleviate the plight of the ordinary Ghanaian, majority of whom, voted to see the NDC win power from the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in 2008.
This, in our candid opinion, is unfair and morally reprehensible. The PURC and government must come again on the reduction and to set a rather practical gesture of leadership by fulfilling its campaign promise of being a listening government.
Ultimately, we take this opportunity to call on pressure groups, including the Alliance for Accountable Governance (AFAG), not to relent on their effort to ensure that government respects its manifesto promises of implementing policies that will bring hope and relief to the ordinary Ghanaian and not to put bitter pills on the tables of the masses.