Despite the continuous decline in oil prices
globally and locally, commuter bus owners in the country continue to
refuse to lower fares and in fact, they want the fares increased.
This became evident yesterday when the Surface and Marine Transport
Regulatory Authority Consumer Consultative Council (Sumatra CCC) made a
fresh proposal that urban commuter bus fares should be reduced to 300/-
from the current 400/- for every 10kms and that upcountry luxury bus
fares should be reduced to 29,000/- instead of 36,000/-.
The stakeholders raised their concerns in Dar es Salaam during a
public inquiry whereby the commuters proposed that fares be lowered in
view of the declined oil prices.
Rebutting the proposal, the transporters claimed that the
operational bills are still high and that if fares are reduced they are
not going to make profit. If anything, the fares should remain where
they are or be increased, they advocated.
Presenting the consumers’ views, Sumatra CCC Executive Secretary Dr
Oscar Kikoyo said a drop in fares is a normal process especially when
oil prices go down in local and international markets.
“Oil is a major factor in transportation business … other factors
which are being considered to be the cause for not lowering the fares
are minor and commuters should enjoy the drop,” he said.
According to reports from various authorities, he said, oil prices
will continue to drop up to USD20 a barrel, that is why proposed to
lower fares so as to reduce the burden on the commuters.
Dr Kikoyo said that according to their proposal, fares for luxury
bus (Scania) should be 29,000/- instead of the current 36,000, and fares
for ordinary buses should be 17,000/- instead of 22,000/-. As for
(Yuntong) luxury buses, the council proposes that the fare should be
reduced to 22,000/- from 36,000/-.
Tanzania Bus Owners Association (Taboa) secretary general Enea
Mrutu criticising the formula used by the Sumatra CCC to have the fares
said it was not realistic.
“We suggest the fares to remain the same or be increased because
the operational costs are too high taking into account that they do not
derive from oil alone, but there are other factors such as prices of
spare parts, salaries and other things,” he said.
He said the government should not only consider the fate of the commuters, but it should also think about the transporters.
Dar es Salaam Commuter Bus Association (Darcoboa) secretary general
Sabri Mabruk said they only earn 12,000/- from the drop in oil prices
which goes to pay the commuter bus drivers.
If the new proposed fares will be approved, he said, the lobby will
work with the government to withdraw its request of transporting police
and military officers for free.
Mabruk said that the move to reduce the fares would also affect
students because there will be no special fare for them and instead they
will be compelled to pay depending on the route they take.
“We expected that Sumatra CCC could come up with a proposal that if
electricity charges have dropped by 2 percent, fares should also go
down by 2 percent but there are no fares in this case,” he said.
The national chairman for the agency crusading for the rights of
passengers, Chakua, Hassan Mchanjama has called upon the government to
work on the commuters’ proposal so they could be relived from the burden
of paying high fares amid slumping oil prices.
Worth noting this development is a u-turn of Sumatra previous stand
where last month, the Minister for Energy and Minerals, George
Simbachawene, said Sumatra argument that reducing fares is difficult due
to high operational costs was baseless.
“I will be happy to see the fares of commuter buses reduced so as
to enable the common people to also benefit from the fall in fuel
prices,” he had said.
“The government has been previously blamed for increasing power
tariffs and bus fares … now that the price for fuel has been going down.
I want to see the commodity prices and fares and anything else that
depends on fuel also go down,” he had said.
Sumatra Corporate Communication Manager David Mziray said in an
interview that the decline in oil prices in the world and local markets
was too minimal to warrant a reduction in bus fares.
Sumatra said the transport sector is different from other because
“…there are ‘a number of issues that must be considered before reducing
the fares.”
He cited such factors as the exchange rate of the US dollar to the Shilling and prices of spare parts.
Also according to him, Sumatra is guided by rules and regulations
that “only when bus operators are getting profits in the excess of 25
per cent of their initial investment can have fares reduced.”
Early this month Ewura lowered fuel prices again, having done so a
short time earlier. Those for petrol, diesel and kerosene respectively
dropped by 119.23/- per litre or 7.16 per cent, 147.94/- per litre or
9.21 per cent and 136.79/- per litre or 8.8 per cent.
As for the world market prices yesterday reached USD42.93 per barrel from USD115 in June last year.
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