<<Print>>

Officials of the Transport Ministry will today [Thursday] meet various transport unions to agree on a possible increase in transport fares. Both the Ghana Private Road Transport Union and the Ghana Road Transport Coordinating Council have served notice that transport fares will go up after meeting with the Transport Ministry. Their argument for a rise in fares is largely premised on the recent price hikes in petroleum products. Beyond the increases in the prices of petroleum products, the transport unions say insurance services and vehicle parts among others have also gone up. The latest increase of between 18 to 27 percent in the prices of petroleum products occasioned by the passage of the Energy Sector Levy (ESL) by Parliament in December 2015 took effect on Monday, January 4. At most fuel stations, a gallon of petrol now sells at about Ghc15.40 pesewas with diesel going for Ghc14.50 pesewas. The price of LPG has also gone up by about 18 percent price per kilogram. Meanwhile, the Ghana Private Road Transport Union (GPRTU) has warned all its members to desist from increasing transport fares until the union engages the Transport Ministry. Speaking to Citi News, the acting General Secretary of the GRTCC, Andrews Kwakye, said they have completed their market survey for the computation of the new fares. �We went to the market yesterday to do the survey so now the report for the survey is ready. So we will go and meet the Ministry, and we will put everything into the formulae, and we will see the result. Some of the items have gone up, and some remain the same since the last time we did the survey�, he said.