No increment in transport fares yet – GPRTU

The Ghana Private Road Transport Union (GPRTU) has urged the public to disregard the 30 per cent increment in transport fares by some private commercial transport operators.

The group on Thursday announced a 30 per cent increment in fares effective Friday. The group associated the increment to the rising cost of fuel.

But the GPRTU has urged the public to disregard the new fare since it was yet to conclude negotiations with government on Monday, February 21.

“We have not yet concluded negotiations so the public should ignore those reports. Officially, we have planned that we will issue a statement to announce the new rate after our meeting with the Transport Minister on Monday,” the Deputy General Secretary in Charge of Operations GPRTU, Mr Richard Yaw Amankwah, told the Ghana News Agency.

Mr Amankwah described the group’s decision as a “betrayal”.

He explained that the 30 per cent proposal to government was because “When we did our calculations, we agreed that the increment in fares should be at least 21.4 per cent. So we proposed 30 per cent to the Government”.

He said the GPRTU was “a well-structured institution” and that the Union would follow due process to ensure that the agreed increment would benefit transport operators, the public and all other stakeholders.

“All the 16 transport unions that make up the Coalition of Commercial Transport Unions of Ghana have agreed to conclude our negotiations with the Government before we take any step. So if one group comes out to announce a rate whiles negotiations are ongoing then it’s a betrayal,” he said.

The Coalition of Commercial Transport Unions of Ghana had initially proposed 30 per cent increment in transport fares but reduced it to 20 per cent after meeting with Mr Kwaku Ofori Asiamah, the Minister of Transport on Monday, February 14, 2022.

Two separate meetings between the transport operators and the Transport Minister had ended inclusively, with the Government pushing for a 10 per cent rate against the 20 per cent being demanded by the transport operators.

The transport operators had argued that the hikes in fuel prices had taken a toll on their businesses, adding that a market survey it conducted last month had indicated that the prices of essential input for their operations, including spare parts and lubricants had gone up by at least 35 per cent.

Source: Graphic.com.gh