We will no longer respect any convention on increase in transport fares – Concerned Drivers Association
The Concerned Drivers Association has said transport operators will no longer meet with the Transport Ministry and the Ghana Road Transport Coordinating Council (GRTCC) before any upward adjustment in transport fares.
Spokesperson for the Association, David Agboado said the long-standing convention whereby the three parties meet to agree on an increase in fares has outlived its usefulness since there is now deregulation in fuel price build-up.
Speaking to Evans Mensah on Top Story, Friday, Mr. Agboado indicated that there is currently no subsidy in fuel prices, hence meeting government to determine a percentage increase in transport fares is no longer needed.
“Normally government doesn’t have a say in we increasing transport fares, but when government used to subsidise fuel price, there was some convention and that convention has broken down and we don’t want to go by it again. When the fuel price goes up, we must also adjust ours, that is why we are coming out with this,” he said.
Mr. Agboado was reacting to the GRTCC’s concern that there has not been any meeting with the Ghana Private Road Transport Union (GPRTU) to agree on a 20% increase in transport fares.
General Secretary of GRTCC, Emmanuel Ohene Yeboah in an interview with JoyNews on Friday explained that the usual convention has been for the Union to meet with the GRTCC and the Transport Ministry before any upward adjustment in transport fares is announced.
He told JoyNews that the Council is not aware of the 20% increase in transport fares.
“As a party, whenever there is a fuel increase and its corresponding increase in transport fares, the operators, that is the GPRTU and the GRTCC will meet together with the Ministry of Transport to discussion and agree on the percentage increase. But as I speak to you, there is no meeting of such nature, so for anybody to come out with a definite statement that we are going to increase by this percentage at this time, I don’t know,” he said.
But the Spokesperson for the Concerned Drivers Association stressed that government does not inform drivers before any increase in fuel prices at the pumps thus, a similar situation should be applied to the increase in transport fares.
“It was in 1995 thereabout that the convention was set because of the subsidisation of the fuel, but now there is no any subsidy, we go to the pump and buy it directly.
“When fuel price would increase they don’t inform us the stakeholders, we just go to the pump and it is announced that they have increased it. So it must be applied and that is what we will be doing these days,” he stated.
The Ghana Private Road Transport Union (GPRTU) has announced an upward adjustment of transport fares effective May 7, 2022.
This is in spite of an earlier announcement by the Union that it hopes to adjust transportation fares upwards by 30% effective Friday, May 13.
In an interview on JoyNews’ The Pulse on Friday, Samuel Amoah, a member of the National Communication Team of the GPRTU, revealed that the increase is due to President Akufo-Addo’s remark that government cannot afford to remove taxes on petroleum products.
“So this news came to us and then we also came to a round table and found out that there is nothing they could do about reducing the taxes on petroleum products, that is why we also organized ourselves, did our calculations and now from tomorrow May 7, we are coming up with 20% upward adjustment in our transport fares,” he said.
Source: Ghana News
