Thursday, March 28, 2024

Proposed 10 percent rise in road tax will not trigger bus fares hike, assures Bust and Tax Operators

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The Bus and Taxi Drivers Association of Zambia has assured commuters that there will be no further upward adjustment in bus fares following the proposal by the government to increase road tax by 10 percent.

The Road Transport and Safety Agency have announced the proposed 10 percent increment in road tax.

But Association National Secretary Sidney Mbewe said despite the proposed increment, bus fares are mainly increased when fuel pump prices are adjusted upwards.

Mr. Mbewe has however noted that the proposed increment in road tax will increase operational costs for the transport business.

He has since appealed to the government to consider incentivizing the public transport sector to cushion it against increased operational costs.

Last week, the Zambia Consumers Association (ZACA) had expressed disappointment on the decision taken by the Government through the Road Transport and Safety Agency (RTSA) to effect Bus fares hike without inclusive consultation.

ZACA Executive secretary Zuba Sakala said despite his Association writing to Ministry of Transport and logistics permanent secretary and RTSA expressing concerns on how the issue has been handled, the two offices ignored the letter and went ahead to increase bus fares.

Mr Sakala said while the Association is not against the increment per say, the adjustment should have been done in a transparent manner without leaving out stakeholders such as the Commuters Right Association of Zambia and the Zambia Consumer Association.

“We wrote to the two offices to express our concerns on how the meeting was held and proposed another meeting but all was ignored and they have gone ahead effecting new fares which is unfortunate,” he said.

Mr Sakala said the new government should be transparent in the manner they handle issues in the public transport subsector to avoid suspicions.

He said the situation where other stakeholders are used as a rubber stamp or ignored should come to an end if the country is to move in unison for national development.

27 COMMENTS

  1. Were road licenses also subsidized? What benefit is to the nation? In Tanzania this nonsense was abolished many years ago.

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  2. Why do we have RTSA in the first place? RTSA as an institution was born out of corruption.
    Everything RTSA does is a duplicate to what is happen by Zambia Police.
    RTSA is just an unnecessary overhead.
    Secondly why should RTSA collect road tax, do they maintain any Road in Zambia? Road Tax should go back to been collected by the councils, and councils should be mandated to maintain roads in their jurisdictions. NRFA and RDA is a waste of money and a duplication of functions. We wasting tax payers money pleasing cadres.

  3. We have no problem paying more taxes to develop Zambia, but not to pay fat salaries to Directors of institutions which should not exist in the first place.
    Please incorporate RTSA into Zambia police, if you mean well for Zambians.

  4. Taxation is a neccesary sin,but double taxation is just pure evil .GRZ should instead find 10% cuts in kickbacks from its many tenderprenuers .

  5. This is not good at all
    What is really happening in this country?
    How can you increase road tax ?
    We are paying a lot of money to the government already
    The end is near

    • Indeed whats happening in this country? Where one cant find a single editor who went to school? What are Bust and Tax Operators?

  6. The poor will remain poor and the rich will remain rich? It’s true no matter what you do?

    Today you hear road tax increases 10%

    The other day I was fighting with my insurance company about the 16% vat which the government was trying to introduce, all Not good, even if you want to do economy recovery or pay country debts, or develop the country, you don’t have to milk the citizens like that? Were do you think they will find money to feed our families?
    What a terrible world we live in, come 10yrs from now you will see what other things will come
    The end is near?

  7. We told you guys. HH will drain people’s money from their pockets.

    If it was PF increasing all these, hh would have said a lot of things

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  8. The poor will remain poor?
    The rich will remain rich?
    Boom 10% increase
    Boom trying 16% vat introduced on insurance
    Boom citizens are milked for economic recovery
    Boom citizens are milked for paying country debts
    Boom we are finished

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  9. #9 TIKKI and what are you? We are not economists but we live in an economical situation which affects our well being. When I talk about mosquito causing malaria, that doesn’t make me a doctor but it affects my health.

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  10. You don’t need to be an economist to notice 10% increment of road tax and what impact it will have on your pocket.

    Let’s calculate;

    10% increment road tax
    Zesco
    Fuel

    List is on going.

  11. If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.” Ronald W. Reagan, 39th President of the United States of America

  12. These bus owners are very greedy individuals. They make hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. If bus ownership was a bad business we would not have had such a proliferation of buses in Zambia. There is not a single bus company that has folded in 20 years. They will increase fares at the slightest excuse. So we are not clapping for this.

  13. Now LT is just becoming a nuisance. Can you check your algorithm please? Stop sending comments to moderation for nothing. There are people like KZ who are always in_sulting people and they get their comments published. What is this?

  14. Ati we told so.
    Yes we were right so f’ng what?
    Let’s roll with the former losers.
    We were winners but now we are losers. So as losers let’s hold our breath. Everything increasable will increase. What have got to increase as a citizen.
    We told you the nigga won’t be able to put food on your tables.
    My heart is with you Zambians. Though I am away, I with you in spirit.
    Youth alimbe, worker alimbe na jobseeker naeve alimbe. The next five years will be bumpy, it was our democratic choice. What a choice?

  15. So every corner you turn, crazy and stinky IMF manace is biting.
    Everything increasable and taxable will be on the upward swing kamba ka IMF condition. H² is inert and toothless at this level.
    Sovereignty is tossed to IMF Imperialists.

  16. This the most wicked and poorest government Zambia has ever had and will go out in history that when HH came into power people lamented to the fullest it was all taxes price increments.
    This character doesn’t have a heart for the poor people no wonder they call him names he is a sadist who likes seeing people suffering I don’t know weather that is how his mother brought him up we don’t hear about his father if he is alive.
    All we hear is about vengeance for cases committed many years ago, we are just surprised weather his cases will finally come up and let him explain about the unprecedented riches he got from Zambian assets.

  17. Can RATSA please do their job? Road user education has completely died in Zambia. You have people driving cars with no idea how and which lane to use in 2 or 3 lane roads. E.g You have scenarios where slow moving cars driving side by side in with no right passing lane available. Some Drivers think they can stop and park cars anywhere and obstruct other vehicles as long as they switch hazard lights on. You have cyclists not using lights during the night. Like many Zambians, I drive a corolla which cant go over most speed humps. Are you advising road construction how to design safe speed humps? Can you also mandate all cars to switch lights on by 17 and 18hrs in winter/summer respectively to increase visibility. Studies done years ago showed reduction in accidents at dawn and dusk when…

  18. #24 Steve. Yes we need this education. Imagine at a junction of two lanes road someone turning to the right takes the entire right lane therefore blocking cars entering that road.

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