People now prefer to walk short distances rather than board a vehicle due to rising fuel expenses — GPRTU

Spokesperson of the Ghana Private Roads Transport Union (GPRTU), Alhaji Ibrahim Moro has revealed that passengers now prefer to walk short distances rather than boarding commercial transport due to the increasing fuel prices.

Speaking on the Key Points with Dzifa Bampoh on Saturday March 19, he assured drivers that the leadership of GPRTU will work to make the transport sector lucrative.

“People now want to walk short distances, when they walk to their destination they joined transport back,” he said.

He added “we will do everything possible to revive the sector.”

Member of Parliament for Bongo, Edward Bawa, for his part attributed the increase in fuel prices to the poor performance of the Cedi against the dollar.

“The major challenge now is the stability of the cedi,” he said on the same show.

The Chamber of Petroleum Consumers Ghana (COPEC) also noted that the cedi has seen a sharp depreciation against the dollar by 9.71% from GHS6.8360 to GHS7.500 to a dollar, a situation that affects the prices of fuel.

COPEC has said the ex-pump prices of LPG will also increase by 23% from GHS 9.8 per kg in this current window to GH¢12.04 per kg in the next window beginning March 16, 2022.

“This implies that a 14.5kg will be sold at Ghc174.58,” COPEC added.

“The petroleum price indicators as published by the NPA shows that the price of Gasoil (diesel) will increase by 30.41% from GH¢8.22 per litre in this current window to Gh¢10.721 per litre beginning 16th March 2022 and ex-pump prices of Gasoline (petrol) will increase by 18.25% from GH¢8.22 per litre to GH¢727 per litre within the same period.”

Meanwhile, the Director of Research at the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), Dr John Kwakye has given the Ministry of Finance and the Bank of Ghana (BoG) a number of suggestions to enable them deal with the challenges facing the local currency, the Cedi.

Among the suggestions is the strict enforcement of foreign exchange currency laws in Ghana.

In a statement, he said among other things that “Enforce foreign exchange laws more strictly including relating to; documentation requirement for external transfers; limits on carry-on foreign currency by travelers; documentation requirements for foreign currency purchases from forex bureau; activities of unlicensed foreign currency dealers; pricing of goods and services in cedis and not in foreign currencies, payment for services provided by Ghanaians in cedis and not foreign currencies , money laundering through banks and forex bureau.”