ECG’s billing adjustments: consumers feel robbed, PURC must intervene

An electricity bill should explain what a customer owes. When thousands of cedis appear under the word “adjustment”, without a clear account of how the amount was calculated, that bill becomes a demand for trust the supplier has done little to earn. That is the anger running through complaints about the Electricity Company of Ghana’s postpaid billing. One customer reports a GH¢9,000 adjustment. Another says an adjustment increased a bill from GH¢90 to GH¢1,189. Others ask what happens to people who have already paid amounts subsequently found to be excessive. There are also complaints of customers trooping daily to ECG’s Kumasi Substation offices, its Hohoe office and offices in parts of Accra, seeking explanations for disputed bills. They describe encounters with tellers and other frontline staff whose responses they consider dismissive, unreasonable and unhelpful.