THE GHANA Private Road Transport Union (GPRTU) has announced that it will raise transport fares by 30 per cent beginning Friday, May 13.
The decision, according to the union, is as a result of the increment in fuel prices in recent months.
The union had allegedly proposed to government to scrap some taxes on petroleum products to cushion drivers and commuters, but government rejected the proposal.
The Industrial Relations Officer for GPRTU, Abass Imoro, in an interview, said the decision was hard to come by but that remained the only option available to the union.
“We have been forced to make a decision. We were thinking of being sympathetic. We never wanted to take this decision, but government has not cooperated with us. Fuel prices keep shooting up,” he said.
He also claimed that the GPRTU “wrote to the Transport Minister about our plans to increase transport fares, but we received no feedback.”
“We are thus going to take a decision that will help us as well. We will announce the new prices by next Friday,” he stated.
Transport fares increased by 15 per cent in February 2022, when fuel prices averaged GH¢6.4 per litre.
A litre of fuel now sells around GH¢10 after crossing the GH¢8 per litre mark in the first week of March 2022.
The GPRTU argues that the move has become necessary due to the increase in the prices of petroleum products.
Both commercial and private drivers, as well as other stakeholders, have reportedly mounted pressure on the government to scrap some taxes on fuel to cushion consumers, but government has maintained that is not possible, in the current scheme of things, largely orchestrated by the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, and recently the Russian-Ukraine war.
BY Nii Adjei Mensahfio