The Ghana Private Road Transport Union (GPRTU) says it has no plans of reducing transport fares despite the decrease in the price of fuel.
The National Petroleum Authority (NPA) announced a two percent reduction in the prices of petroleum products which took effect from last Tuesday.
According to NPA, the decrease was in accordance with reduction in the prices of crude oil and petroleum products on the world market.
Transport fares went up by 15 percent in July but the reduction in fuel prices has led to suggestions that the transport fares will also be reduced, however, the GPRTU says the “negligible” drop in the fuel prices cannot warrant a change in the transport fares.
[contextly_sidebar id=”3MmXEDHItOCQOwqU9xTk4pSHFCJkRj6D”]The Greater Accra Chairman of the GPRTU, Robert Sabbah, told Citi News: “It [the reduction in fuel prices] is very negligible, it has no effect.
“There is an existing convention between the transport operators and the Minister of Transport that we can only increase our fares when there is an increment in [the price of] fuel to the tune of five percent and above. So the two percent doesn’t match at all,” he explained.
Mr. Sabbah also stated that the review of transport fares does not solely depend on fuel prices and several other factors are taken into consideration.
“The [prices of] lubricants as well as the spare parts like the batteries that we buy have not been reduced. The insurance has even been increased to the tune of almost 200 percent. We never factored in this cost at our previous increment and therefore it will be highly unacceptable for the GPRTU to reduce the fares,” he said.
Meanwhile some passengers and motorist have kicked against the reduction saying it was unnecessary since transport fares remain unchanged.
The two percent reduction in the price of fuel has been widely criticised, with former Deputy Energy Minister, K.T Hammond describing the reduction as “insulting” to Ghanaians
By: Edwin Kwakofi/citifmonline.com/Ghana