Transport fares are going up by 30% on Monday, February 7, 2022, says the Coalition of Transport Operators who say they have no choice but to increase fares on account of the government’s insensitive hikes in fuel prices.
An increase in transport fares will send prices of goods and services through the roofs as all economic activities in Ghana are linked to the cost of transportation in a country with an extremely poor or almost non-existent transportation infrastructure.
David Agboado, PRO of the Coalition explains that the increment will be effected after they meet the Minister of Transport on the same day.
“On Thursday, we met at TUC, GPRTU headquarters, and we have decided to increase the transport fares by 30%. The measures we used to reach this decision are; the current increase in fuel prices, increase in the price of items we use, government charges amongst others. That is what we are going to charge after seeing the Minister on Monday,” Agboado stated.
The decision to increase fuel prices, he explained, follows a meeting between some 16 transport unions on Thursday, February 3, 2022. The meeting was to discuss the recent increment in fuel prices, and the accompanying impact on commercial transport operators.
Fuel prices have been hiking following a re-introduction of the Price Stabilisation and Energy Recovery Levy (PSRL) by the National Petroleum Authority (NPA),
Meanwhile, Executive Secretary of COPEC, Duncan Amoah, criticised the efforts of the government in dealing with the consistent increment in fuel prices.
According to him, the price per litre of fuel is likely to hit GH¢8.00 by March this year, thus government must sit up.
“In real terms, fuel price increases these days happen to be one of the very things pushing the economy to the brink. The year began with fuel price at GH¢6.6. Unfortunately, we now have some OMCs selling at GH¢7.50. It’s our estimation that probably by the end of March if international price trends continue to move as it is doing currently, we would be crossing the GH¢8.00 mark,” Duncan Amoah told Accra-based Citi FM.
Duncan Amoah adds, “What it means in simple terms is that your fuel prices will go up by that margin. 16 pesewas for petrol, 14 pesewas for diesel, 14 pesewas for LPG. We think this is very insensitive and badly timed. Insensitive to the extent that, you have for the first time in 28 years, where crude prices have crossed 90 dollars. Mostly in January, crude prices decelerate or decline.”
Source: whatsupnewsghana