The Ghana Road Transport Coordinating Council (GRTCC) has asked the public to disregard the 20 per cent fare increment imposed by the Ghana Private Road Transport Union (GPRTU) and other unions.

In a statement on Monday, the GRTCC said no single union has the mandate to determine the percentage increase in fares.

“We wish to state that, transport fares have always been negotiated for and on behalf of all operators by the Ghana Road Transport Coordinating Council and the Ghana Private Road Transport Union, no single union or group has the capacity to determine the quantum of increase except the two bodies mentioned above,” portions of the statement read.

Speaking with Joy News, General Secretary of GRTCC, Emmanuel Ohene Yeboah described the increase in fares as unfair stressing that the GPRTU has defied the usual convention in determining the percentage increase in fares.

“It’s unfair for them [GPRTU] to take such a decision because we have been working together since 2001. This process has been working for us since 2001 and I don’t see why they have to be diverse from our processes throughout the years.

"So if anything at all, I think we should have met just about three days to wait to meet the Transport Minister and bring finality to some of these issues,” he told Joy News.

The Ghana Private Road Transport Union has also accused government of intentionally frustrating the process of transport fare review and has thus unilaterally adjusted fares by some 20 per cent.

By convention, they’re supposed to meet with the Transport Ministry and GRTCC to agree on the increment with the government taking several factors into consideration.

But the GPRTU said its members were struggling to meet their expenses and could therefore not wait on government.

“We had wanted to meet the ministry for the negotiation as we normally do but we found out that they keep postponing us and it’s like we don’t know the reason why the Ministry is running away from the meeting.

"It’s like we are still buying the fuel at the higher cost by the time we were given the 15%, the fuel price was 7.99 cedi per litre and up till is now is ¢11.20 and still, they don’t want to meet us for the negotiations to accept the percentage that we want to increase and drivers are complaining.

"There is a lot of pressure coming from the various stations to the Executives that is why we came up with the 20 per cent and its working,” a member of the GPRTU’s communications team, Samuel Amoah told Benjamin Akakpo on Joy News’ AM Show, Monday.

GRTCC now wants the GPRTU to reconsider its decision and return to the negotiations table as it has scheduled a meeting with the Transport Minister on Wednesday, May 11.

“We, therefore, wish to inform the operators and the general public that the Transport Minister has indicated his readiness to meet with the leadership of the GRTCC and GPRTU on Wednesday 11th May 2022, to commence discussion on our proposal for a fare increase,” GRTCC said in a statement.