The Ghana Road Transport Union (GPRTU) will, on Monday, October 24, 2022, announce new fares for public transport.
According to the Industrial Relations Officer for GPRTU, Abbas Ibrahim Imoro, the increment of the fares has been necessitated by the continuous soaring of prices of petroleum products at the various fuel pumps.
Currently, diesel and petrol are selling for over GH¢15 and GH¢13 respectively, at major fuel pumps; a situation transport operators say it’s eroding their profit.
A consultative meeting between the government and transport unions to negotiate an increment in fares has ended inconclusively.
Unfortunately, Mr Imoro said the union could do little to save the situation.
“Normally, if we are able to conclude, we will come out on Monday with a percentage of increment. We will give the passengers a few days to adjust themselves to the new prices,” he said on Citi News.
He further urged passengers to bear with the GPRTU in order to keep their business running.
“We’ve been very considerate. This would have been the third or fourth adjustment from May. We are all in this country and have seen frequent increments in fuel prices. But we have sacrificed to contain it. But we can no longer bear the cost.”
“So we urge passengers to bear with us.”
Meanwhile, the Executive Secretary for the Chamber of Petroleum Consumers Ghana (COPEC), Mr. Duncan Amoah, has disclosed that per the current rate of the dollar as compared with the cedi, fuel prices in Ghana are likely to hit GH₵18 per litre in December 2022.
COPEC has urged the government to take the necessary steps to intervene in the situation before it gets out of hand since fuel prices are almost hitting GH₵16.00 per litre at the pumps in Ghana now.
What can be done to address the situation?
The COPEC-Ghana Executive Secretary told The Ghana Report, “We have a local refinery that we could have leveraged to get some fuel security at lower prices, but unfortunately, we don’t think there is a political will to refurbish the Tema Oil Refinery”.
Mr Amoah observed a fully functional refinery would cut the logistical cost, which adds to the price build-up by exporting crude to Europe to be refined before importing back to Ghana.
“They need to get TOR back on stream, and the need for political interference to be stopped holds the key for all for us,” he underscored.
Additionally, he cited the Bulk Oil Storage and Transportation Company Limited’s (BOST) failure in executing its mandate.
Mr Amoah explained that BOST is supposed to store huge volumes of fuel and release to the market to level prices and check shortages “without overstretching the already burdened Ghanaian taxpayer”.
However, “we do not see that function of BOST, and they are now focusing on trading…which was not the purpose of the BOST Act but to hold strategic stock”.