The Coalition of Transport Unions and Associations has asked the government to scrap nuisance taxes else they will increase transport fares by 20% in the next 13 days.

The Coalition of Transport Unions and Associations earlier threatened to increase transport fares by 20% if the government failed to scrap some taxes from the petroleum price build-up.

The National Public Relations Officer for the Concerned Drivers Association, David Agboado, in an interview on Eyewitness News on Citi FM in Accra on Wednesday reiterated that the government must abolish the energy sector levy, fuel marking margin, sanitation and pollution levy, as well as the special petroleum tax, to ease the unnecessary pressure on drivers and other consumers.

“These are the taxes that we want the government to scrap from the price build-up because they are outlived. For example, with the energy sector levy, we were told that in June 2021, they had cleared all the debts in the energy sector. Fuel marking was used when the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) was operational. Now TOR is not operational, so the fuel marking margin is not operational. And then we have the special petroleum tax. We don’t have anything special about our fuel being made because we all bring in the end product. So that is why we are demanding that these taxes should be scrapped,” he added.

Speaking about how they arrived at the 20% increase, Mr Agboado indicated that they took into consideration the cost of fuel, lubricant, spare parts, and the cost of cars.