NPA boss flags ‘recalcitrant’ transport operators raising fares arbitrarily

The CEO of the National Petroleum Authority (NPA), Godwin Edudzi Tamakloe, says he is “greatly worried” about attempts by some transport operators to increase fares arbitrarily following recent increases in fuel prices.

His comments come as rising petroleum prices continue to put pressure on transport operators and raise concerns about their potential impact on inflation.

The NPA has raised its minimum price floors for petrol and diesel in the latest pricing window, keeping fuel costs at the centre of discussions between government and transport operators.

Speaking on Joy News’ PM Express Business Edition on Thursday, Mr Tamakloe said the NPA, together with the Transport Minister, has been engaging transport operators over the impact of fuel prices on their businesses.

“I’m greatly worried. Greatly worried in a sense that together with the Minister for Transport, we’ve been engaging the transport operators, and the whole idea is that government has been doing so well.”

He said transport operators have several major costs to consider, including vehicle maintenance, spare parts, fuel and payments to drivers and mates.

“First of all, for transport business, there are three essential things that you always want to look at: the cost of maintaining the freight, the cost of spare parts. Not only that, the cost of running the business, that’s fuel cost.”

Mr Tamakloe said some of these costs have remained relatively stable, including insurance, while fuel has become the main source of pressure.

“Insurance cost has largely remained stable. What has become impactful now has to do with the fuel price.”

He said the stability of the cedi had also helped absorb some of the potential increase in the cost of imported spare parts.

“Also, the cedi component. The cedi's stability has absorbed potential costs for you on the forex front. That’s government’s intervention.”

According to him, government has also been intervening periodically to cushion the impact of higher fuel prices.

“So the issue now has to do with this. Now government is also coming in to cushion periodically the impact of the increase in prices.”

Mr Tamakloe said these considerations had formed part of discussions with transport owners on the need for both sides to absorb some of the increased costs.

“So we have jaw-jawed with the various transport owners that there is a time for us to also bear the share.”

He said those engagements had helped prevent a broader increase in transport fares.

“And that is why you notice that the attempt to increase the price or increase fares has basically been put on ice.”

Mr Tamakloe commended the transport unions' leadership for what he described as constructive engagement.

“I think that the GPRTU, and I salute their leadership, the PROTOA and all those other people, that so far we have had some constructive engagement with them, which has greatly been impactful.”

However, he said some operators had ignored the engagement and increased fares on their own.

“There are some a few there are a few recalcitrant ones that have decided to increase their prices arbitrarily.”

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DISCLAIMER: The Views, Comments, Opinions, Contributions and Statements made by Readers and Contributors on this platform do not necessarily represent the views or policy of Multimedia Group Limited.