Transport fares up by 15% from Thursday

Transport fares have been increased by 15 percent effective Thursday, April 6, 2017. This was announced in a statement from road transport operators.

Transport operators have been advised to comply with the new fares, and “post the fare list at their loading terminals so as to avoid any confrontation with the travelling public.”

The statement further asked Ghanaians to cooperate with the implementation of the new fares.

These new fares come at a time when the new government has reduced the Special petroleum tax rate from 17.5 percent to 15 percent; and also abolished duty on the importation of spare parts.

The new fares cover the following types of road transport operations:

Intracity (Trotro)

Intercity (Long Distance)

Taxi Cabs

The increment comes days after the Transport Fare Review Committee of the Ghana Road Transport Coordinating Council (GRTCC), asked all commercial drivers and transport owners to maintain the current transport fares until further notice.

The directive was issued after it emerged that some commercial drivers had increased their fares.

The Ghana Road Transport Coordinating Council (GRTCC) General Secretary, Andrews Kwakye, told newsmen that the increment was illegal, saying “the practice is that, we come out with the official price of the road transport office. All that is happening in the system means that they [the new fares] are all illegal. They were not supposed to increase their fares without our consent.”

Transport fares are largely reviewed due to increases in the cost of petroleum products, cost of spare parts and insurance for vehicles among others.

The recent increase in fuel price in January 2017, was about 11%.