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The Minister of Information, Mr Kojo Oppong Nkrumah has said public calls for a reduction in transport fares following the government's decision to relax the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) protocol and allow public transports to load their full capacity is "not a bad call."

Transport fares were recently adjusted by 15 percent following a justification by transport operators that they were making losses because the COVID-19 protocol was restricting them from loading to their full capacity because of the need to observe social distancing in the vehicles.

Apart from fuel cost, the transport operators used social distancing to justify the need for an adjustment in transport fares.

So to Mr Oppong Nkrumah, if the social distancing has been reduced for them, it was understandable for the public to call for a reduction in transport fares.

"So it is not a bad call," the Minister said in a radio interview on Asempa FM's Ekosii Sen programme Monday afternoon, July 27, 2020.

He expressed the hope that going forward the Ministry of Transport and transport operators will table the issue for discussion and consider if it will be possible to revert to the previous prices or decide that it should be factored in case of any future price increases.

"One thing that we can be sure of is that social distancing cannot become the reason for any potential future increases in transport fares," he said and added that even if the stakeholders do not immediately agree on reducing the recent increases, social distancing can no longer be used as a justification for fare increases because capacities in vehicles were reduced to about 50 per cent.