Spokesperson of the Ghana Private Road Transport Union, Abbas Imoro says the recent 20% increment of lorry fares across the country is a long overdue action by the Union.

According to him, taking into consideration the recent hike in petroleum prices and the increasing cost of living, it is only fair that commercial drivers who have over the period borne much of the financial burden be relieved slightly with the increment of fares.

He noted that the Union had only taken into consideration the hike in prices of petroleum products only to effect the upward adjustment even though the process of spare parts and lubricants had also sky rocketed in the few months.

Speaking on JoyNews’ PM Express, Abbas Imoro stated that the Union had expected government to do more to stall the hike in prices of petroleum products but following recent price increments especially of diesel they had no choice but to implement their upward adjustment.

He explained that several attempts to get government to sit at the table for discussions had failed, thus their recent action.

“If my memory serves me right, somewhere 12th February,  we came up with a 15% upward adjustment, and the communique which came out if you look at the second paragraph, we stated over there that the threshold of 10% on fuel, if it hits 10% we’ll come up with another upward adjustment. We did make mention of 8.8, meaning if it moves from 7.99 to ₵8.8 then we’ll come up with another upward adjustment.

“I quite remember somewhere March the threshold hit 10.80, then on the 17th March we wrote to the Transport Ministry our intention of coming up with another upward adjustment, and in that letter we stated a meeting between GPRTU and the Transport Ministry of which as we speak now there hasn’t been any reply to that letter at all,” he said.

He noted that despite there being radio silence concerning the letters sent to the Ministry calling for a stakeholders meeting, the Union has been speaking with some key players at the Ministry to see to to it that the meeting indeed comes on.

He is, however, adamant that the GPRTU will back down from their upward adjustment.

According to him, push has come to shove, and there is very little the Ministry can do about the situation now.

“If you look at managerial decisions or the way the system works they could have at least acknowledged receipt of that letter, but behind the letter we’ve been communicating with them, trying to make sure we sit and solve that problem because we felt it was even overdue for us to come up with an upward adjustment, and each time we agree on a date and time then it’s being postponed.”