The Committee on Subsidiary Legislation in Parliament is considering the increase of the amount paid to secure passports from GH¢100 to GH¢644 following a submission by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration.
This represents over 500 percent increase in passport fees.
Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey, the sector minister, revealed this information while speaking on the floor of Parliament before the approval of a GH¢1.127 million budget estimate for her ministry.
She holds the position that the cost of passports must be increased as the cost of producing the booklets has surged.
“Ghanaians pay just about GH¢100 for a passport, To produce one passport booklet, it costs GH¢400, which means that for every passport that an applicant acquires, the government has to put in GH¢300 and this is not sustainable,” she said in an interview.
She also informed the House to expedite the approval of the surge in passport price since it is high time Ghanaians pay “realistic prices.”
“On the cost of passports, it is not sustainable, therefore, I will plead with this honourable house to look at the issue for us. It is already before the subsidiary legislation committee, and I’m hoping that Ghanaians will pay realistic prices for passports. At the moment, passports don’t serve as IDs, we have national ID cards. Therefore, those who need passports are those who need them to travel, and I don’t think that they would want us to continue to subsidize it.”
It is expected that the move to increase passport fees will meet stern resistance from a section of the general public, particularly those adversely affected by the country’s economic crisis.
