The Ghana Private Roads Transport Union (GPRTU) has suspended a planned further 15% increase in transportation fares.

This decision was taken on Thursday at a meeting involving players in the commercial transportation industry.

Speaking shortly after the meeting, the Public Relations Officer of the GPRTU, Abass Imoro, said the Union decided to suspend the further 15% increase because they received reliable information in the course of the meeting that there will be a reduction in the prices of fuel on Friday.

“We were in the middle of the meeting when we heard tomorrow there is going to be a reduction in fuel prices hence we have to suspend our press conference to increase prices pending tomorrow’s reduction,” he said.

He says the percentage of the reduction of prices at the pumps will determine the percentage of GPRTU’s increase in fares.

“We have to look at how much is going to be reduced from the fuel to inform us on how much we should also come up with,” he added.

Abass Imoro noted that the new development although has affected their projections of how much to increase fuel prices, the Union would definitely announce an upward adjustment in transport fares.

GPRTU on March 15, announced that commuters should expect an increment in transport fares.

According to the Head of the Union’s Communications, Abass Imoro, the decision is necessitated by the sharp surge in the price of fuel at the pumps.

“When we came out with this current adjustment, fuel price was at ¢7.990 [per litre], so we are waiting for the 10 per cent ratio so if it crosses to the ¢8.8 [per litre], we will come out with a new price. That is the only way we can sustain our transport industry,” he told Joy News’ Kwetey Nartey.

However, the Finance Minister on March 24, announced that government will from April 1, 2022, reduce petroleum price build-up margins by ¢0.15 per litre.

According to Mr Ofori Atta, the reduction is aimed at mitigating “the impact of the rising price of petroleum products at the pump, for the next three months.”

But GPRTU rejected the government’s decision to reduce fuel prices by ¢0.15, stressing that the amount is woefully inadequate.

The Union opined that they would have been better off if government had not absorbed anything.

“If this is all they can do for us, I will say we are ungrateful. The ¢0.15 is woefully inadequate, so we’d have to meet and decide on which way we are going to move,” he said.