The Vice Chairman of the Western Regional Ghana Private Transport Union (GPRTU), Joseph Kingsley Eshun, has condemned the actions initiated by the Ministry of Transport to regulate transport fares after substantial increments in fuel prices.
According to him, the Transport Ministry has no basis in law to determine transport fares, especially in a deregulated market like the country has, where the cost of a fare is passed on and not regulated by the government.
Speaking in a phone interview with Max Morning Dew in Accra last Friday, Eshun, in response to the directive issued on Monday, April 15, by the Ministry instructing the Ghana Police Service to monitor and apprehend commercial drivers who charge fares exceeding the approved rates, said the action was uncalled for.
The GPRTU Vice Chairman said the concerns raised by drivers about the need to increase fares were not only due to a rise in fuel prices but also to an increase in the price of spare parts and the cost involved in car maintenance.
Eshun, therefore, said the ministry had no right to compel transport operators to stick to the old fares when the one increasing fuel prices had not been stopped by anyone or apprehended by law.
He expressed worry about the housing ministry and trade ministry not compelling landlords and traders to maintain rent and goods prices, but the transport ministry was on the neck of transport operators not to increase fares.
The act, which Eshun termed unfair and unacceptable, emphasized the demands of drivers to increase transport fares by 35 percent.
He said the drivers already have increased fares by 20 percent but were patiently waiting on the transport ministry to give the 15 percent fares approval for them to add to the existing increment to ease the pain and suffering of commercial drivers.
Source: Ghana/MaxTV/MaxFM/max.com.gh/Joyceline Natally Cudjoe
