As the cedi keeps racing fast behind the dollar, spare parts dealers have reduced prices of their wares by about 10% to 20%.
The Chairman of the Abossey Okai Spare Parts Dealers Association, Clement Boateng in an interview with Joy News’ The Pulse on Thursday, said spare parts dealers had since Monday, December, 12 reduced their prices.
“Before we came out with the press release on Monday some of our members have already started reducing the wares. If you go to Opera where we have our electrical people there, the coil of a cable used to sell for around GHø300. As I am talking to you now they have reduced it to GHø260, GHø270…We have reduced it between 10 to 20 percent,” he said.
He was responding to a claim by the Ghana Private Roads and Transport Union that prices of spare parts have been increased, the reason transport operators cannot reduce transport fares despite the reduction in fuel.
Mr Boateng explained that aside from the cedi appreciation, it has been a long-standing tradition for spare parts dealers to reduce their goods a month before Christmas festivities begin.
“Abossey Okai, it has been our tradition that every year in November we reduce our prices so that customers can buy parts and service their vehicle for the Yuletide,” he told host Blessed Sogah.
Touching on whether transport operators knew about the reduction of goods so they apply similar reductions with transport fares, he said that commercial drivers always played the blame game when it was time for them to do the needful.
“Over the years whenever it is time for them to do something, they shift the goalpost and they always attribute the fault to price hikes in spare parts and that has not been the case,” he argued.
However, in an interview with a communications team member of the Ghana Private Roads Transport Union, Samuel Amoah, he said drivers had not seen any change in the prices of goods.
“If my brother there is saying that spare parts have been reduced I don’t know, maybe it is just this afternoon.
“We have not seen any reduction as I am talking to you now, that is why I am saying that if it is just this afternoon that they can prove to us that it has been reduced.
“From what I know from last week till even yesterday, some items that some people bought has not been reduced, we have not experienced that,” he added.
Abossey Okai spare parts dealers send strong message to GPRTU over transport fares