Two major youth groups in the Krobo area of the Eastern Region have called on the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) to declare its accumulated bills as bad debt.
The groups have been identified as Kloma Hengme (KH) and Kloma Gbi (KG).
They are demanding that the bills, which have accumulated over a period of eight years, are absorbed or be ring-fenced up to July 2021 “to clean the slate for a fresh start”.
This comes a few days after power was restored to the area following a week the area was plunged into darkness.
They argue these proposals are feasible and can get people back to paying bills, especially as ECG for the past years did not supply bills to them.
“The facts remain that between 2018 and today, (during which ECG either failed to serve bills or had difficulty doing so) many tenants changed homes and the difficulty landlords will face in getting these tenants who have moved out to pay such old bills could derail efforts geared toward finding a solution to the challenge at hand.
“In our estimations, these proposals are practical ones they will get people back to paying their bills and solving the problem once and for all. This is more like saying, we can and have to make some sacrifices now, to safeguard the future,” portions of a statement from the groups read.
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The groups have also described as wrong timing the introduction of prepaid meters in the Municipalities, stating it will be used to recoup the outstanding disputed ‘debt’.
“We suggested that considering the peculiar nature of the impasse, people were most likely to read various meanings into the exercise, including some perceiving it as a form of punishment.
“We proposed that ECG temporarily suspends the rollout of the meters and rather focus on first addressing all outstanding issues to create a soft-landing spot for the implementation of the project,” the state added.
Meanwhile, they want the Police to swiftly probe the killing and maiming of some residents in 2019 during a protest against overbilling by ECG.