Price increases will overburden people -GCPP

The Great Consolidated Popular Party (GCPP) has said the sharp increase in the prices of good and services at short intervals will further overburden the people and defeat government's efforts to reduce poverty levels in the country.

"The GCPP is very anxious about the drastic effects of the intermittent increase in the prices of goods and services, especially the recent 50 percent increases in academic fees for basic and secondary levels and its effect on the pay packets of workers and the populace at large and wonders whether the government's desire to rid the country of poverty could be realized," it said.

The leader of the GCPP, Comrade Dan Lartey, who was addressing a national executive meeting of the party in Accra to state the party's position on the increase in academic fees, described as contradictory the escalation in the prices of goods and services and the commitment of the Kufuor’s administration to reducing poverty to enable the people live meaningful and dignified lives.

He urged the government to bear in mind that 70 per cent of the people are poor and therefore, in increasing the commodity prices, the plight of the poorer sections of the population should be adequately looked at in order not to push them further into the poverty abyss.