President of the Transport Operators Development Sustainable Services (TODSS), Egerton Newman, has issued a warning to public passenger vehicle (PPV) operators not to increase fares.

Newman issued the warning following a meeting at the Ministry of Transport on Thursday., March 28  in which members of the steering committee agreed to defer a 16 per cent fare increase until the next financial year.

According to Newman, about 8,000 transport operators opted not to take up the first fare increase of 15 per cent announced last October because of complaints from commuters.

“You would understand that when we got the last fare increase, a great percentage of our operators, especially those in the Kingston metropolitan transport region, did not accept the increase because we believe that although it is needed there was a challenge in collecting the 15 per cent given to us. And it was more so challenged by commuters that they could not afford the increase. Most of us opted not to take the increase but to take it in one tranche this time around,”  said Newman.

“I want to make it very, very, clear as president of TODSS, I’m calling on transport operators, especially those in the Kingston metropolitan transport region, not to go ahead and increase any fares. I am going to be very, very serious about that. If you did not take it – you can’t take it- because we did not take it at first, we can’t take it now,” added Newman

Newman told Observer Online that operators were not surprised by the ask of  Finance Minister Nigel Clarke and Transport Minister Daryl Vaz, who had summoned the steering committee, just a day after the close of the budget presentations.

According to Newman, prior to being summoned to the meeting, it was clear the subject of the discussions.

“When we listened to the budget presentation by the minister and by the prime minister we thought that there was nothing there for us, especially the fact that there was some concern between the Bank of Jamaica and the government in terms of announcing a reduction in JUTC fares.  From that time we knew that it was going to be a challenge in getting the second tranche of our increase, so it wasn’t a surprise,” said Newman.

“We could have said to the minister before the meeting started, we know why we are invited here. It was less than 24 hours that we got the invitation.  So we knew it was coming,” added Newman.