Africa-Press – Eswatini. Commuters can heave a sigh of relief for now as public transport operators have decided not to negotiate for fares to increase following the fuel hike.
Instead, they want government to reduce fuel tax by 50 per cent and to remove the SMVA fuel levy once and for all.
SMVA is an acronym for Sincephetelo Motor Vehicle Accidents Fund.
They said this would ensure that the price of a litre of fuel remained below E20.
Public transport operators said if government failed to respond swiftly, they would shut-down all bus ranks.
This was a culmination of a meeting for the transport industry, which was held yesterday at the Manzini Library.
The meeting organised by the National Road Transport Council (NRTC), was attended by representatives from Swaziland Local Transport Association (SLTA), Manzini Kombi and Minibus Association, Buses Association and Eswatini Kombi and Minibus Association, to mention a few.
Chairman of Buses Association, Duma Msibi, said the fuel hike was a very sensitive matter, which would not be resolved overnight following the ongoing war between Ukraine and Russia.
He said given the ongoing war between the two countries, it appeared that the situation was far from over.
He said, therefore, it was very significant for them to come up with an immediate, yet long lasting solution, which would rectify their plight.
“If we can work in unity, we can come up with a long lasting solution,” he said.
He said the long lasting solution was none other than lobbying for government to reduce fuel tax by 50 per cent and to remove the SMVA fuel levy once and for all. Msibi said government had taxed the nation for a long time and it was now time for it to reduce taxes on fuel by 50 per cent and also remove the SMVA fuel levy. He said by so doing, the fuel would decrease.
“Reducing these taxes would solve the fuel crisis in the country as the price would be reduced to E16/litre. We are not self-centred in our proposal because we understand that our customers are experiencing a financial strain following the hike in commodities without the provision of a salary increment for them,” he said. Msibi said it was now difficult for their customers to budget for groceries following the incessant hike of commodities.
He stated that it was for that reason that they decided not to hike the bus fare this time around, but rather lobby for government to take responsibility.
Msibi said countries such as South Africa had tried to effect bus fare hikes amid the fuel hike but they realised that it was not a sustainable solution and ended up demanding their government to reduce fuel tax. He argued that SMVA was able to sponsor a soccer tournament to the tune of E10 million, hence they were advocating for SMVA to stop collecting the fuel levy.
Msibi asked the chairmen of the associations to work cooperatively and politely lobby the ministry of finance to take charge of the situation since hiking the fares was no longer practical since commuters had no money.
Subsidise
‘Enough is enough; government must take responsibility and lead the nation,” he said. Meanwhile, during the meeting, some of the members of the associations suggested that government should subsidise fuel for all public transport vehicles in the country.
They suggested that the filling stations should be systematically selected across the country and government should subsidise by at least E10/litre.
The operators claimed that due to fuel hikes, they now found themselves spending E700/day on fuel and end up making a sum of less than E450, which was a huge loss on their side. One of the operators said they would rather park their vehicles than to continue incurring losses.
Meanwhile, one of the public transport operators said when fuel prices were hiked, no due processes were followed and there were no meetings held, yet when it comes to the hike of bus fares, they were expected to adhere to long procedures, which would sometimes take as long as six months.
He said another solution that should be considered was that when formulating new regulations, the NRTC should come up with a regulation that would exclude government on matters of bus fare hikes so that the process could be expedited.
He said this would enable them to effect the bus fare hikes immediately rather than having to wait for a long period.
“In the next three coming weeks, there will be another petrol hike, yet when it comes to the public transport owners, they are expected to follow long processes, which have been deliberately elongated,” he said.
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