The
Africa Centre for Energy Policy (ACEP), an independent think-tank, has welcomed
government’s move to pay debt owed by the Volta River Authority (VRA) to banks
and supplies.
VRA
is a strategic institution in the country’s power sector, producing about 2,400megawatts
of the total 4,000 capacity power generation.
However,
the debt burden of the Authority has increased over the past several years due
to a combination of operational and financial difficulties.
The
indebtedness makes it difficult for the company to pay millions of dollars owed
Ghana Gas, the West African Gas Pipeline Company (WAPCo) and the several
independent power producers in the country.
Government
has indicated the VRA legacy debts of Gh2.2 billion will be paid from a special
account opened to receive the proceeds of the Energy Sector Levy.
Speaking
in an interview with 3news.com, Head of Policy Unit at ACEP, Dr. Ishmael Ackah,
said government’s intervention to settle the VRA debt is a step in the right
direction.
“It
is good that the government has come in to help; VRA’s debt as at now is about
Gh6 billion and paying about Gh2.2billion is quite good,” he said.
Fifty
per cent of the funds accruing under the Power Generation and Infrastructure
Support sub-account under the Energy Sector Levies Act (ESLA, 2015) will be
used to retire the legacy debts.
Dr.
Ackah however says transparency in the management of the Energy Sector Levies
will inure to the benefit of Ghanaians.
“Energy
Sector levies are paid by citizens so we’d want to know how much we’re receiving,
so if there could be semi-annual accounts to citizens that this is how much we
received from last year, and this is how much we paid and this is the balance,
at least it will promote transparency,” he suggested.
By
Kofi Adu Domfeh
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