Minibus increase fares for passengers after fuel hike
Minibus operators have said they are raising passenger fares following Malawi Energy Regulatory Authority (Mera)’s dramatic adjustment of fuel prices by an average of 28 percent.
Mera announced the increase of fuel prices on Wednesday evening.
Minibus Owners Association of Malawi (Moam) acting national chairperson Felix Mbonekera Msiska said following the fuel price hike, the association is discussing with minibus operators to revise passenger fares.
He said they are consulting with some regional chapters to see “how best we can effect adjustment on our part.”
Passenger Welfare Association (Pawa) has asked government to “step in and subsidise the commuter.”
In a statement signed by board chairperson Leonard Chikadya, Mera increased the pump price of petrol 20.87 percent more from K690.50 per litre (l) to K834.60/l.
On the other hand, diesel—predominantly used for transporting goods in a country that heavily depends on road transport and currently being used to generate about 60 megawatts of the country’s electricity—is up 24.31 percent from K664.80 to K826.40. Paraffin has jumped from K441.70 to K613.20, representing 38.83 percent hike.
Mera spokesperson Fitina Khonje attributed the increase to the rise in fuel landing costs and the depreciation of the kwacha by 3.37 percent since May this year.
The move is likely to push up the cost of other commodities.
Raising minibus fees is totally unfair
Please reverse your decision 😢😢
Foseki
Infact petrol is cheaper in Malawi than in the UK. So I wonder why some people make too much noise.
Are the salaries of Malawians equal to those in UK?
How can malawian people to trust the political parties, during campaigns they outline their manfestal that will raise the dead Malawi, so look now, this not old malawian style people now are open their minds.
Stealing from people. Did they reduce fares when fuel prices decreased from K930 to K690? The best is to boycoat these accident prone mini buses.
This is true, John Kapita is blind, MOAM is the one stealing from Malawians, after fuel went down K240.00 the prices remained the same
That’s not good
when fuel was decreased none of u came forward to announce decrease of transport fees so why raise again when initialy the cost of fuel has just returned to where it was before
kutijaila eti
Yes that’s right. In fact Malawi should consider of getting crude oil via pipe line into the country just like Zambia is doing. Zambia has a crude oit pipeline from Dar esaalam. We must also improve our railway line so that most of our goods should be coming into Malawi via railway