New transport tariff ‘Not Realistic,’ – Transport Union chief

By Adama Makasuba

The President of the Gambia Transport Union has described government newly introduced transport tariffs amid the coronavirus pandemic ‘not realistic’ since transport fares remains as usual after the declaration of the public State of Emergency.

Barrow administration last week released a new tariff for the commercial vehicles operating across the country after the public State of Emergency was declared. In spite of the government’s new introduced tariff, passengers are still paying double fares.

Omar Ceesay said “fares haven’t gone down, though government released a new tariff, but transport fare is not reducing.”

He disclosed that the government has given instruction that vehicle capacity should be reduced to 50% while the reduction from the fuel price is more or less a zero per cent because “government only reduced 1 dalasi from the fuel pump.”

Mr Ceesay lament that “what government has reduced doesn’t yield impact on us [drivers],” despite that he said his union will continue to engage the Ministry of Finance to reduce price of fuel in the country.