Monrovia – On June 19, 2023 Liberia’s Finance and Development Planning Minister Samuel D.Tweah, Sr. while speaking about the “success of the current government” during a radio interview on state radio ELBC, claimed that the “cost of electricity is around 0.20 – 0.21kwh (kilowatt per hour) from 0.35kwh.”
Minister Tweah continued: “President Weah has now reduced the cost of electricity for businesspeople at around 42%, by more than 100%; He brought it down for poor people. In the Joseph Boakai’s government, poor people were paying 0.35 [per kwh]; they’re now paying 16-17cents per kwh’’.
To verify this claim, LVL Fact Checking Desk reviewed two press releases and documents from the Liberia Electricity Cooperation (LEC) and the Liberia Electricity Regulatory Commission (LERC).
On the LEC website, we found a press release titled The New Approved Tariff Structure published on January 1, 2021. It listed the new tariff for electricity which was to be effective by January 2022.
In the tariff structure, electricity energy charge for social customers is 0.150kw/hr, with a goods and service tax of 0.015, that constitutes 10% of the energy charge resulting to 0.165 of the total energy charge.
Residential pre-paid energy charge is 0.240 kw/hr with a GST of 0.024 (10% of the energy charge), that results to 0.264 of the total energy charge. Residential post-paid energy charge is 0.240 kw/hr but with a GST of 0.024 (10% of the energy charge), that sums up to the total energy charge of 0.264 kw/hr.
Non-residential prepaid is at 0.220 kw/hr with a GST of 0.022 (10% of the energy charge), that sums up to the total energy charge of 0.242 while non-residential postpaid is 0.220 kw/hr with a GST of 0.022 (10% of the energy charge), that results to the total energy charge of 0.242 kw/hr.
Medium Voltage is 0.190 and with a GST of 0.019 (10% of the energy charge), that results to a total energy charge of 0.209 kw/hr.
Also, we reviewed a document published on the website of LERC which also corroborate with the press release published by the LEC.
A December 14, 2021 New Dawn news article titled “Authorities at the Liberia Electricity Regulatory Commission (LERC) have announced what they term as massive reductions in electricity tariffs, beginning January 1, 2022.” also reported about the reduction in electricity tariff.
The article referenced a statement by the Chairman of the LERC Board, Dr. Lawrence Sekajipo saying that “tariff for postpaid residential customers – is set at US$0.24 cents per kilowatt, which also represents a 31% reduction from the current price of US$0.35 cents per kilowatt-hour”.
It added that “post-paid commercial customers rate is set at US$0.22 cents per kwh (kilowatt/hour) which represents a 37% reduction from the current price of US$0.35 cents, Social customers, whose monthly energy consumption is either less than or equal to 50kWh, shall pay US$0.15, which represents a 32% reduction from the current price of US$0.22.”
Conclusion
Therefore, with these findings we conclude that the claim made by Minister Tweah that the “President Weah has now reduced the cost of electricity for businesspeople at around 42%, by more than 100%” is incorrect. According to the LERC, tariff for “non-residential customers, is US$0.22 cents per kilowatt-hour” representing 37% reduction the previous price which was at US$0.35 cents. The reduction of tariff was not 100% but rather 37%.
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This report was developed with the support of Internews through the USAID Media Activity project. The funder has no say in the editorial decision leading to the production of this content.