The Ghana Private Road Transport Union (GPRTU) will hold a crunch meeting next week to deliberate over a “possible” upward adjustment of transport fares.
Mr Eric esirifi in an interview with Bohyeba Afriyie on Plan B Fm’s Ebaanosen stated that its necessary to increase fares due to what they described as “significant hikes” in fuel prices over the past few weeks.
He said that prices of petrol and diesel have shot up by 7.3 per cent and 9.7 per cent respectively, in the last one month and added that currently, petrol is trading at an average GHS 10.10 per litre while the national average for diesel is pegged at GHS 12.20 per litre.
He also said that the transport fares went up by 20 per cent last month.
“As of May 9, 2022, when the new fares took effect, petrol and diesel were selling at a national average GHS 9.41 and GHS 11.12 respectively”.
He added that commercial drivers “have not seen any significant increase” in their income since the last increment in fares due to the continuous rise in fuel prices.
He said next week’s meeting would help the GPRTU to decide whether the recent hikes in fuel prices merited a hike in transport fares.
“It is not our doing. The situation demands it. We are also consumers. Whenever fuel prices go up, it affects our business and even though we are not happy to increase transport fares, it will go against our business if we don’t do so,” he said.
Discussion about this post