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Mozambique: Government And Transport Operators Agree Fare Rise
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Agencia de Informacao de Mocambique (Maputo)
31 January 2008
Posted to the web 31 January 2008
Maputo
The fares charged by private passenger transport operators in Maputo and the neighbouring city of Matola will rise by up to 50 per cent as from next Tuesday.
An agreement reached between the operators and the government on Thursday states that the fare charged by privately-owned minibuses for distances of up to five kilometres will rise from five to 7.5 meticais (50 per cent). For distances longer than five kilometres, the fare rises by 33.3 per cent. from 7.5 to 10 meticais (at current exchange rates, there are about 24 meticais to the US dollar).
The agreement came after three days of intense discussions between the Federation of Road Transport Associations (FEMATRO), and the Transport Ministry.
The new fares are much lower than the initial demands made by FEMATRO, which had wanted a fare of at least 12.5 meticais for distances of up to five kilometres, and 14.5 meticais for distances beyond five kilometres. FEMATRO chairperson Rogerio Manuel claimed that a study ordered by the Federation showed that the flat rate fare should be 18.9 meticais.
He complained that with the new fares the owners of the mini-bus taxis (known colloquially as "chapas") would only make a profit of five meticais per journey: but he did not explain the mathematics on which this conclusion is based.
"The agreement between the government and FEMATRO will imply a better level of organisation", declared Deputy Transport Minister Ernesto Augusto, at the press conference following the agreement.
He announced that the two sides had also agreed to joint inspection to prevent such abuses as the shortening of routes (whereby chapa-owners cut a long route into two shorter routes, in the hope of extorting twice as much money from their passengers). The inspection teams would involve the traffic police, the municipal police, inspectors appointed by the transport associations, and citizens' representatives.
Augusto also said that working committees will be set up that will discuss fares regularly.
Manuel claimed that, of the 4,000 minibuses that used to circulate in Maputo and Matola, over 1,000 are off the roads due to breakdowns, which their owners cannot afford to fix.
According to Manuel the chapa-owners have been operating at a loss since 2006, and have been subsidizing their passengers. He made the extraordinary claim that, at current fares, every time a passenger boarded a chapa he received a subsidy from its owner of eight meticais.
But if it were true that the transport operators have been making losses for the past two years, then obviously they would have gone bankrupt by now and pulled their vehicles off the roads.
Asked by AIM whether the government agreed that the operators are subsidizing the traveling public, Augusto took refuge in the evasive remark "The government is concerned with everyone, both the public and the transport operators, After all, they too are part of the public".
The fare rise was prompted by the latest increase, on 23 January, in the price of liquid fuels. Shortly after oil prices hit (albeit only for a very brief period) 100 US dollars a barrel, the Mozambican Ministry of Energy announced an 8.1 per cent increase in the price of petrol, and a 14 per cent rise in the price of diesel. The diesel that the chapa owners use rose in price from 31.02 to 35.35 meticais per litre.
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Since then oil prices have fallen, and on Thursday the price quoted was between 90 and 91 dollars a barrel. Should prices fall further, it is entirely possible that the Mozambican government may find room to cut fuel prices in February, in its monthly review of prices. But given the volatile state of the energy markets, it would be foolhardy to make any predictions.
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| Copyright © 2008 Agencia de Informacao de Mocambique. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections -- or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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