TUC vows to resist unreasonable utility hikes as fuel prices, water tariffs go up 

The TUC says it will continue to resist any unreasonable increases in utility and fuel prices and other such policies and measures that undermine efforts to improve the living standards of the working people of Ghana and their families. 

According to the TUC, working people and the ordinary Ghanaian cannot continue to absorb any further increases that lead to higher cost of living. 

The General Council of the TUC took the decision at its 33rd Bi-annual meeting in Tema. 

The Congress said Ghana’s three-year 940 million dollar deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) will not help attract long-term investment into the country.

The government has signed up to a three-year IMF programme to gain some credibility in the eyes of foreign investors.  But the  TUC says Ghana cannot develop on a “borrowed credibility”.  

According to the union, “it is very unlikely for any investor to invest long-term in domestic production merely because of a three-year IMF bailout programme. 

In the view of the TUC, Ghana requires long-term investment to grow the economy, rebalance the current account, and  strengthen the cedi and, most crucially, create decent jobs”.  

It wonders what will happen when the three year IMF programme ends in 2017? 

The TUC says if past trends are anything to go by, then it expects a return to the status quo where fiscal imprudence ushers country into further fiscal austerity with or without the IMF-sponsored programmes. 

Meanwhile prices of petroleum products have gone up again by about 15 per cent.  Although no official statement has been issued by the National Petroleum Authority or Bulk Oil Distribution Companies (BDCs) concerning the price hikes, players in the industry have attributed the hikes to the continued depreciation of the cedi. 

GBC