The Ghana Private Road Transport Union (GPRTU) says it is looking forward to a further reduction of fuel prices to either Ghc6.50 or Ghc6.40 per litre on Friday as promised by the government.
GOIL Company Limited, one of the three leading oil marketing companies in the country yesterday slashed its fuel down from GHS6.85 to GHS6.70, following Monday’s strike by the union and other commercial driver unions over “high” fuel prices.
The reduction was influenced by the government, the majority shareholder of Goil, after it met leadership of the unions at the Presidency over their request for scrapping of taxes on fuel.
But, the GPRTU General Secretary, Godfred Abulbire, told the Ghanaian Times in a telephone interview yesterday that while the speedy reduction by Goil was welcoming, they were waiting for the assurance of further reduction on Friday.
For now, he said, the strike which was suspended yesterday has been called off due to the assurance the union received over a three-hour meeting attended by the Chief of Staff, Akosua Frema Osei-Opare, and six other government officials.
“The key question that was asked was, is it that we want the fuel prices to go down or they should remove taxes on fuel? If we want the fuel price to come down, then we should narrow our question down on anything government can do for the fuel price to come down.
“But if we are hammering on taxes to be removed, is that the only way it can work? So (we said) anything that can make the fuel prices come down is what we want”, he recalled.
Mr Abulbire said the Chief of Staff made it clear that the government has authority only over GOIL, but not Total and Shell and made sure GOIL came down to Ghc6.7 before the meeting ended.
“The other underlining question that was asked was that to what level do we want the margin reduced to so we would be okay? We said if they can cut it down to 6.4 or 6.5”, he recounted.
Mr Abulbire explained that it was agreed that since many drivers bought fuel from Goil, Shell and Total, if the government is able to influence a further reduction of their prices, the others would be compelled to go below the Ghc 6.4 that they are selling now.
“That was the ultimate discussion we had and they said by Friday the prices will come down up to the 6.4 or 6.5”, he said.
Asked what would happen if the prices did not reduce on Friday, Mr Abulbire said, it was agreed that another meeting would be held on Tuesday between the leadership of the union and the government for further negotiation.
Meanwhile, some commercial drivers in Accra have said the reduction of fuel prices by GOIL alone was unsatisfactory and that it should be reduced further to about Ghc5.00 per litre.
One of them, Yaw Berko, who plies the Lapaz-Circle route told the Ghanaian Times that “If it was for that small reduction, we would not have sacrificed yesterday’s sales. It needs to go down further”, he said.
BY JONATHAN DONKOR
