GPRTU et al threaten to increase fares by 20% over rising fuel costs

Private commercial road transport operators and the Ghana Private Road Transport Union (GPRTU) have threatened to increase fares if government does not meet their demands to remove or reduce some taxes on petroleum products.

The key stakeholders in the commercial road transport industry have expressed disappointment in the government “for not putting in place any mitigating or stabilization measure to curtail the hikes in fuel and petroleum products in Ghana”.

Describing the government’s attitude as “half-hearted”, the operators consisting of Concern Drivers Association, Committed Drivers Union, and True Drivers Union said their welfare has been relegated to the rear in the scheme of things.

“Our disappointment stems from the failure of the government to commit to its assurance to operators that it will continue with efforts to prevent a steep rise in input cost,” they said in a press release sighted by 3news.com on Monday, October 11.

“It was based on this assurance that members of the Ghana Road Transport Co-ordinating Council agreed to increase transport fares by 13% on 2nd June, 2021.”

They are, therefore, simply asking government to review the taxes on petroleum products, especially on Diesel and Petrol.

They are also urging government to scrap the following taxes as a matter of urgency: Special Petroleum Tax (46pessewas/Litre), Price Stabilization and Recovery Levy (16 pessewas/litre), BOST Margin (9 pesewas/litre), and Sanitation and Pollution Levy (10 pesewas/litre).

“We also believe that the Energy Debt Recovery Levy and the Energy Sector Recovery Levy should be merged and reduced to 30 pessewas per Litre.

“We believe that the removal of these taxes will reduce the prices of diesel and petrol by Ghc1.20/Litre each.”

Failure by government to meet these demands, the operators threatened, will culminate in “no alternative than to increase our fares by 20% to recover the cost of our operations and debt we have incurred during these price increment”.

Source: Emmanuel Kwame Amoh|3news.com|Ghana