Accra, April 1, GNA -Government has secured an undertaken by the three major public transport unions in the country not to increase their transport fares, Presidential Spokesperson, Mr. Mahama Ayariga, said in the first government reaction to new fuel prices announced on Wednesday. According to Mr Ayariga, the Ghana Private Road Transport Union (GPRTU), the Progressive Transport Owners Association (PROTOA), and the Cooperative Drivers Association have all pledged to stay their lorry fares at existing levels.

Addressing the media at the Castle, Osu, on Wednesday, Mr Ayariga said the decision by the transport unions not to hike their fares was partly due to the fact that they failed to review their fares downwards when the last price reductions were announced on March 16, last month.

The National Petroleum Authority on Wednesday announced new prices for crude products in the country to reflect surges in the world price of the commodity.

The new increases are between 2 and 10 per cent, except the price for kerosene and premix fuel which remained the same. The surges mainly affect petrol which has gone up by 10 per cent, while liquefied petroleum gas saw a swell of 5 per cent and diesel also saw a marginal increase of about 2 per cent.

Mr Ayariga said government remained committed to securing prices of petroleum products at affordable price but an under-recovery debt of more than 354 million dollars at the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) incurred by the out-gone government had made this vision difficult to attain.

He said although the government was concerned about the increases, the crippling debt at TOR, the depreciation of the value of the cedi in recent times and the increases in the world price of crude had made the hike unavoidable.

The Presidential spokesperson recalled recent government efforts to reduce considerably some tax components of petroleum pricing, including the excise duty, the petroleum mitigation levy and the TOR debt recovery levy, which led to the 5 per cent announced at the beginning of last month. The cost of petroleum pricing had gained some prominence of late as it was one of the issues hotly contested in the last polls, and the Wednesday announcement has been received with mixed feelings. Mr. Ayariga said government was being sincere with its actions and was certain the transport unions would implement the agreement reached with them. Dr Kwabena Donkor, Deputy Minister of Energy, said government would address the problem of fuel efficiency and smuggling as part of long-term measures to promote a more sustainable energy policy as Ghana awaits its own production of crude next year. 01 April 09