Sumatra to review fares following fuel price drop
What you need to know:
- Transport regulator to hold meetings as it seeks to establish whether there is a need to cut bus fares
Dar es Salaam. The Surface and Marine Transport Regulatory Authority (Sumatra) plans to review bus fares in the wake of the sharp drop in fuel prices in recent months.
“Sumatra will soon review fares to establish if there is a need to reduce them. In doing this, we will collect the views of various stakeholders as required by law,” said the transport regulator in a statement published in newspapers yesterday.
Sumatra said it would hold a series of meetings in Mwanza (March 9), Kigoma (March 12) and Dar es Salaam (March 18).
Commuters and travellers have been questioning why bus fares are still high in the country despite petrol and diesel prices having fallen by an average of 20 per cent since last September.
But public transport operators maintain that oil’s current trend in the world market is temporary, and prices would start to rise again soon. Crude has plunged in the world market from $100 per barrel in July 2014 to below $50 in February, but the impact of the drop was first experienced in Tanzania last September as it takes up to two months to import and distribute petroleum products in the local market.
In Tanzania, prices of petrol, diesel and kerosene have dropped by a total of Sh499, Sh384 and Sh384, or equivalent to 22 per cent, 18 per cent and 19 per cent, respectively, from September 2014 to February 2015.
Petrol dropped from Sh2,267 per litre last September to Sh1,768 in February while diesel and kerosene dropped from Sh2,092 and Sh2,041 to Sh1,708 and Sh1,657 respectively.
The Energy and Water Utilities Regulatory Authority (Ewura) has reduced energy tariffs by 2.21 per cent effective March 1 to reflect the drop in fuel prices.
Further cuts are expected when Ewura announces new prices for March tomorrow.
