Passengers may be spared the impact of petroleum price hikes as the Ghana Private Road Transport Union, GPRTU, has ruled out any increase in transport fares.
Prices of petroleum products were increased over the weekend following an increase in global oil prices in the first pricing window in September.
A litre of petrol is now selling between 3 cedis 63 pesewas and 3 cedis 68 pesewas.
Also, a litre of diesel is selling between 3 cedis 62 pesewas and 3 cedis 65 pesewas.
But the National Chairman of the GPRTU, Kwame Kumah tells Citi Business News the margin of increase in petroleum prices, does not meet the required rate to negotiate an increase in transport fares.
“If you compare the current increases in prices of petroleum products to the previous situation where the OMCs were reducing their prices to reflect international market conditions, the relative low differences do not give us the go ahead to increase fares,” he explained.
Some commercial drivers have argued for an increase in transport fares to meet the high operational costs.
While some floating drivers had already adjusted their fares to meet the increase, drivers who belonged to unions maintained they could only do that when given the nod from the leadership of their respective unions.
In addition, the National Chairman of GPRTU indicated that the procedure to determine transport fares cannot be side-stepped as it required a thorough discussion with key stakeholders in the transport sector.
“We have a method which we are using as a union in determining transport fares. Any such decision will have to be arrived at after a consultative meeting with various stakeholders like the transport ministry, PROTOA, GRTCC among others,” Kwame Kumah remarked.
The last increase in transport fares was announced in February this year when fares went up by 15 percent.
Commenting on whether there is going to be a likely increase before the end of year, the GPRTU boss intimated that such a decision will largely be influenced by the prevailing market conditions.
“I am unsure of the situation till the end of year since we cannot predict what happens in the market environment,” he observed.
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