The Ministry of Transport has come under fire from the Chamber of Petroleum Consumers (COPEC) for sending the Ghana Police Service a directive about the imposition of new fares.

On Monday, the Ministry gave the Ghana Police Service instructions to search for commercial drivers who are overcharging for fares.

However, COPEC Executive Secretary Duncan Amoah argues that because the Ministry has not addressed the root causes of the purported fare hikes, it is not in a position to force the unions to follow the directive.

“The Transport Ministry has no basis in law to determine transport fares, especially in a deregulated market like we have, where the cost of fare is passed on and not regulated by government. The cost of insurance is simply added on year in, and year out. The cost of fuel goes up at will. As and when the dollar goes up, as and when international markets go up, as and when taxes go up, your fuel prices are rising.”

“Why is the Transport Ministry in all of these discussions? And so we think that the Transport Ministry should not arrogate onto itself constitutional powers that it does not have at present to even call for the arrest of a driver or drivers simply because they are trying to recover costs of their operation. I am not suggesting the drivers should just go ahead and charge too much, but if there is a need for them to go up in transport fare, so be it.”