Council approves 40 per cent increase in fares

Joko Moses, Chairman of the Ghana Road Transport Coordinating Council (GRTCC), on Monday said the Council would, by the end of the week come out with a report on the standard fares for commercial transport in the country.

Moses said, meanwhile, increases in fares of commercial vehicles would be from 30 per cent to 40 per cent but this does not go across board. The Chairman said this after a marathon tripartite meeting in Accra between executive members of GRTCC, Ministry of Mines and Energy and Ministry of Roads and Transports to work out new fares.

"Drivers are sacrificing; they are doing their best whilst waiting for the new percentage looking at prices of spare parts." The two ministries and GRTCC on Friday announced a 30 per cent increase in fares following the almost 100 per cent hike in the prices of petroleum products.

However, drivers have ignored the new fares and are charging double the old fares. Moses described the meeting as a difficult one called by the government to iron out the differences in transport charges after the arbitrary increase in lorry fares. Moses said the Council was finding a basis for doing the right thing and not to give drivers the chance to do what they wanted.

He said the Council needed some time to educate its regional Council members and transport owners on the issue and called on the public to bear with them. Moses assured the public that the issues were critically looked into and all imbalances in the previous system have been addressed.

He said certain routes were killing businesses due to poor fares charged. Moses said the Council reasoned with drivers and the public and made sure that they came out with figures that would enable drivers to break even. He said drivers should for the safety of passengers carry only the registered number of passengers.