The Ghana Private Road Transport Union (GPRTU) has announced that tariffs would be automatically modified whenever gasoline prices rise by 10%.
The Union claims that the current 15% hike in transportation fees will be repeated whenever gasoline prices hit 10% again.
Richard Yaw Amankwah, GPRTU’s deputy general secretary in charge of operations, told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) that the union’s decision to benchmark transport costs to gasoline prices was intended to help the industry.
“We have said that anytime gasoline costs rise by 10% or more, we would increase transit fares,” he said.
“We are still watching the costs. We’re simply passing the time. “The same margin will be applied to transit tariffs when it reaches 10%,” he told the GNA.
On March 1, 2022, ex-pump prices for petrol and diesel increased by 30 pesewas per litre, to GHC 8.20.
Some market experts predict that if nothing is done to slow the depreciation of the cedi versus the dollar, petrol prices might rise to GHC9.0 per litre.
Price volatility of petroleum products has been attributed on the ongoing increase in Brent Crude on the international market.
The Institute for Energy Security (IES) predicted a 4% increase in petrol and diesel prices this week, citing the cedi’s performance versus the dollar as a main factor.
The IES determined that the cedi depreciated 4.11 percent to close at GHC6.85 to the dollar in the previous pricing window.
The Chamber of Petroleum Consumers (COPEC) also forecasted 4.6%, 3.4%, and 2.5% increases in ex-pump prices of fuel, diesel, and LPG starting March 1, 2022.
In the First Pricing Window of March 2022, it predicted that petrol and diesel will be GHC8.190 per litre and LPG would be GHC9.163 per kilogram.
Source: TheBBCghanna.Com
