By: Roberta Gayode Modin
Prices of goods and services like transportation are jacked up with the smallest increase in fuel prices. The alacrity and urgency with which prices are increased by the traders is mind-boggling. It is as if their heartfelt prayers have always been that fuel prices should skyrocket.
In recent times, fuel prices have dropped significantly. However, the Ghanaian buyer is yet to witness an equal drop in prices of goods and services.
In justification of the trader’s behaviour, the Vice President of the Ghana Union of Traders Association (GUTA), Clement Boateng, explained, ” in the determination of prices for goods and services, fuel prices is just one of the variables.”
However, speaking on the GTV Breakfast Show, the Chief Executive Officer of the Consumer Protection Agency, Kofi Owusu-Hene, also known as Kapito, described the behaviour of traders as an unfair way of doing business and attributed it to their appetite for making instant profits.
“The excuses that traders give the consumers is where I have a problem. It is an unfair way of doing business. When fuel prices go up, instantly you jack your prices which is fair. When fuel price is coming down and you tell me you won’t reduce it because, in three months from now, if you decide to go and buy the goods again, the dollar rate will have gone up, you won’t reduce it. Is it fair?” Mr. Kapito lamented.
Mr. Kapito also cautioned traders to change their mentality about doing business; otherwise, there will be a time when their goods will be left to rot because consumers may not be able to afford them.
