The Bus and Taxi Owners Association of Zambia (BTOAZ) is today expected to announce new fares, following the new fuel prices announced this week,
In a statement made available to the media, BTOAZ national spokesperson Amis Daudi said the decision to announce the new fares follows a consultative meeting with the government through the Road Transport and Safety Agency (RTSA).
He said this is in line with the established consultative procedure in effecting adjustments to the bus and taxi fares in the country.
Mr Daudi has since appealed to all public passenger transporters to be patient and accommodative to allow the consultative process to end before implementing new bus and taxi fares.
“The BTOAZ remains committed to the promotion and delivery of a safer, convenient, and efficient public passenger,” he said.
This weekend other transport operators on some copperbelt towns already increased fares following Fuel and Petrol increments on Friday last week by the Energy Regulation Board announced new fuel prices with effect from December 17, this year.
Last week government, through ERB, increased the price of fuel after removing subsidies on petroleum products to reflect the correct price of the commodity.
The pump price of petrol was increased to K21.16 kwacha per litre from 17.62 per litre while diesel price rose to 20.15 kwacha per litre from 15.59 per litre, the Energy Regulation Board said in a statement.
“This is following the announcement by the government that fuel subsidies will be removed so as to migrate to cost-reflective pricing,” ERB said.
The current pump prices have been kept artificially low since December 2019 despite movements in international oil prices and depreciation of the kwacha, the regulator said.
Finance Minister Situmbeko Musokotwane said earlier this month that an International Monetary Fund programme to try to get the country’s global debt mountain back under control would include removing unsustainable subsidies on energy and agriculture.
Dr Musokotwane said Zambia was committed to bringing debt to sustainable levels, but that the removal of subsidies would mean price increases, something which has already proved politically contentious.
“The increase is going to come, because as a country we overborrowed,” Dr Musokotwane said had warned Zambians.
Dr Musokotwane said that Zambia still needs to win final approval from the IMF board, having announced a staff-level deal on Dec. 3. In a bid to secure the deal, he is implementing unpopular reforms including cuts to fuel and power subsidies. He’s also engaged creditors to restructure about $16 billion in external debt with formal negotiations due to start in the second quarter.
IMF Zambia mission chief Allison Holland said more details would be given once the programme was approved by the board, adding that reducing the fiscal deficit and removing inefficient subsidies, which Zambia has on power, fuel and farming, were key goals of the programme.
Holland said a greater proportion of spending on health and education was also key, which Musokotwane said would be achieved with money saved on the subsidies.
Non-discretionary subsidies on the consumption of fuel in particular are seen by economists as a wasteful use of state resources.
“When you freeze the (price of the) product, you are merely postponing the problem,” Musokotwane said. “Today we are sitting on unpaid bills for petroleum products of $480 million.”
The current pump prices have been kept artificially low since December 2019 despite movements in international oil prices and depreciation of the kwacha, the regulator said. WONDERS WILL NEVER END. LATE LAST YEAR THERE’S AN OUTCRY THAT OTHER COUNTRIES HAD REDUCED OIL PRICES BUT ZAMBIA HAD NOT FOLLOWED SUIT. MY ADVICE TO THE UPND IS THAT THEY SHOULD DOUBLE CHECK WHAT PEOPLE LIKE THIS REGULATOR ARE SAYING. HE IS NOT SINCERE. ALL THIS IS SUGAR COATING IN LINE WITH WHAT THE GOVERNMENT WANT US TO BELIEVE.
Ripple effect number 1.
Principle, pass it on to a commuters, an ordinary Zambian.
Effect, more kwacha out of your pocket.
Proposed fair increment – K3, local; K30, intertown.
Wapya munzi! We will get used.
IMF having it’s way.
I used to distrust lawyers. Now I have included economists to my list of distrust. Today you blame the high cost of fuel to the depreciation of the currency. Your currency appreciates, you blame the high cost of fuel to other indescribable reasons.
The fuel price increment is 20%. People do not ride on fuel. In fact, commuters travel on the buses and taxis. The increase is not on the motor vehicles, but on fuel only!
So, bus fares cannot increase by 20% Fuel is just one of the running costs, probably 20% or 25%.
If fuel is, say, 25% of the running costs, then bus fares can only increase to a maximum of 20% *@5 =5%!
#4 Mano…A trip from Chimwemwe doesn’t consume a litre which has increased by four Kwacha. But the bus owner increases his fares by four Kwacha per passenger per trip. This has always puzzled me. Maybe we need to sit together with RTSA and calculate the right percentage. I’m a bus operator myself and usually it’s my drivers who get involved in these sit ins whenever there’s a demand for fare increase.
we are in trouble, i wonder how life would be for an ordinary zambian who doesnt even work, bamayo kumushi balacula for sure this government is for the rich people.The poor now will face imaginable suffering.
Only the rich and those depending on government allowances for fuel like Ministers will benefit…they don’t spend any money from their pockets
Life under the new dark govt. You were promised lies you sad gullible disgruntled roaches.
We did not have more money in our pockets from PF for ten years, One of the many PF empty promises. Burried and forgotten
What amazes me is that some comfortable people are even shameless to tell us that cheated on more money in the pocket so it’s not wrong for another person to tell lies in order to win an election.
Finance Minister Situmbeko Musokotwane said earlier this month that an International Monetary Fund programme to try to get the country’s global debt mountain back under control would include removing unsustainable subsidies on energy and agriculture. FROM THE HORSE’S MOUTH LITERALLY.
ROACHES ARE THE ONLY CREATURES TO SURVIVE EVEN A NECLEAR BLAST
SO THEY ARE HERE TO STAY…
EVEN IF THE GOT MANNER FROM HEAVEN SOME ON HERE WOULD STILL FIND SOMETHING TO COMPLAIN ABOUT
You won’t see HH’s praise singers on this thread…..Spaka and my good brother Tarino Orange…and expect them to completely vanish from LT very soon once Bally starts showing signs of hallucinations….expect moron Sarah to take over LT with insults….
Subsidy removal is a necessary evil for now, lets go through it, it is the result of excessive and reckless borrowing by the PF that has led to this, we have no choice but to dance to the IMF’s conditionality’s due to PF who themselves inherited a decent economy from MMD but left their friends with nothing to call an economy. Incompetency was the hallmark of their ten year in power. Let people with the intellect, capacity, competency with a deeper understanding of economics drive us now, we believe in UPND
Saulosi those two village roaches spaka and tarino have gone into hiding. Tarino now posts and responds to himself like a mad cow. No one even reacts to his 100 comments. He is a sad pathetic little chimp
Of course bus fares and even transporters need to increase charges to keep up with this increase. This is normal and people will get used after a while.