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A plea by the Ghana Private Road Transport Union (GPRTU) to government to intervene and reduce the impact of fuel price hike on its members might heed to nothing.

According to the General Secretary of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), the Nana Addo-led government does not have control over the crude oil prices – hence, their demand cannot be met instantly.

John Boadu who was speaking on NEAT FM’s morning show, ‘Ghana Montie’ noted that “the strength of the cedi to the dollar and crude processes on the external market” also constitute to the hike of fuel in recent times.

“We [NPP] do not have control over the crude oil price,” he told host Kwesi Aboagye in response to the GPRTU plea to government.

Despite fuel price hikes, the GPRTU has however said it does not plan to increase transport fares per an agreement with the Ministry of Road and Transport.

Fuel prices on Monday had increased from Ghc 4.91 pesewas to GHc5.18 pesewas and Ghc 4. 85 pesewas to GHc5.14 pesewas per litre for diesel and petrol respectively.

This was in line with projections by the Institute for Energy Security (IES) - The IES attributed this largely to the depreciation of the cedi.

The Chairman of GPRTU, Kwame Kumah in an interview with the media said “it is not good for us every day to wake up and hear that fuel prices have gone up . . . every day getting up and hearing that fuel is going up; it won’t go well for us.”

He pleaded with government to do something about.

But according to John Boadu, government cannot use funds for other developmental projects to intervene the reduction of fuel price.

“If that is the decision of the Ghanaian people then that is fine because we are there for them. We will do that so all other activities will halt,” he said. 

He also noted that “What we said during our campaign time was based on what was available, but now things have changed. People shouldn’t argue based on that. Government is working to stabilize the economy and other things. The NPP took over when everything was in mess.”

“Nobody is happy with the fuel hike. I buy petrol myself so I am not happy. We must put measures in place to stabilize things,” he added.