Fuel price hikes not enough to increase transport fares – GPRTU

Nana Kwame Sarpong, Accra-Ho branch chairman of the Ghana Private Road Transport Union (GPRTU), on Monday said the two per cent fuel price increase would not result in a rise in transport fares.

Nana Sarpong, who was speaking in an interview with the Ghana News Agency in Accra, said the percentage change was not enough to warrant increments.

“Previously it was GH¢9.30 but now a twenty pesewa increment summing it up to GH¢9.50 does not call for increment. We are still sticking to our old fares,” he said.

Nana Sarpong said such increments were determined at the regional level but no such policy had been implemented.

Mr Maxwell Owusu, a driver plying the Accra-Ho road, said he was still charging the old fare because no new fares had been communicated to them.

Mr Charles Tetteh, an Osu–Cantonment driver, said no increment had been communicated to him by those at the helm of affairs and that there was no way he would increase his fares to create confusion between passengers and himself.

Mr Ben Nii Quaye, an Accra-Labadi driver, told the GNA that the two per cent increment would not result in increased fares and that he would abide by regulations from his superiors.

Mr John Bentil, a taxi driver, said if government would use the increment to support the economy, then drivers would need to rally behind government for a better Ghana.

Some passengers whom the GNA spoke to appealed to the government and drivers to consider their plight and maintain the fuel prices.

Source: GNA