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Consumers of both electricity and water will from today pay more for the two utilities as the recent increment announced by the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) takes effect today.

The 59.2 percent increment for electricity and 67.2 percent for water have been met with stiff opposition from Ghanaians, citing current harsh economic conditions and the energy crises as reasons.

Consumers who shared his frustrations about the recent increment to Citi News, said: “When the light is not there how can they increase it so they have to find a solution before increasing it [tariffs].

“If they will give us the light, we too we will pay but if they don’t give us the light how can we pay,” one other concerned consumer asked.

Another stated that he is willing to pay more for electricity tariffs if measures are taken to address the inconsistent power supply.

“My problem is that if the increment will get the lights to work then I don’t have any problem because if you don’t work you cannot pay salaries, you cannot pay your workers …”

Meanwhile, the Trade Union Congress (TUC) will today [Monday] meet officials of the PURC over the recent increments.

The TUC says the increment is ill-timed and wants its implementation postponed till next year.

Today’s meeting, according to the TUC Deputy Secretary, Dr. Yaw Baah, is to impress on the PURC to reduce the tariffs.

“We have been going back and forth, back and forth and I can tell you we did not get the 400 for water and the 200 and over for electricity and we are still talking about 59% which means that we really are almost hitting the target so we will continue the dialogue. If we can dialogue in a nice environment why should we go and jump on the streets?”