Mining firms and steel mills operating in Ghana will be required to pay more on utility tariffs starting tomorrow, July 1, the Finance Ministry has said.

The companies are currently paying about 11 cents per kilowatt hour (kWh) and are expected to pay about 22 cents, a 100 percent increase.
Yet, the Minister of State at the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning, Dr. Anthony Akoto-Osei, explained in Accra last week, that the payments are nowhere near full cost recovery.

The fiscal and exchange rate anchor for price level stability for the economy continues to weaken as fears reveal that the economy is not likely to absorb the continuing threat of global food and fuel price hikes within the short-term.

Continuing slippage in the gross international reserves of the economy is facilitating a weaker cedi as developments in the foreign exchange market for the past two months has seen the Ghanaian cedi depreciating sharply against its major trading currencies.

The Gold Coast Securities Cedi Index, which measures the overall performance of the cedi against the dollar, euro, pound sterling and the CFA, recorded its lowest level for the month of June.

The Index last week Friday reached 110.07 points, showing a year-to-date depreciation of 5.99 percent and base year-to-date depreciation of 10.07 percent.

This is the highest depreciation so far recorded by the index since the Bank of Ghana redenominated the currency in July last year.