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Taxi and tour bus fees may go down
Tuesday, June 6, 2006
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Hon Charles Clifford,
Minister of Tourism |
Tourism Minister, Hon Charles Clifford, has said that public transportation operators’ application-for-licenses’ fees may decrease.
Operators only just began paying the fees less than three months ago, but speaking in the Legislative Assembly on 1 June the Minister said that the application fees, ranging between $150 and $250, “may very well be excessive.”
He addressed the issues after the Leader of the Opposition, McKeeva Bush, asked, “Has there been an increase in the cost of licenses for Taxi Drivers and Tour Bus Operators and, if the answer is yes, under whose authority was this increase implemented?”
Mr Clifford said that 1995-enacted Public Passenger and Vehicles Regulations had made provisions for these application fees.
Mr Clifford also said, however, that over the past nine years, the fee was never collected.
He said that the discovery that the fees had gone uncollected for so long was made during a January-to-February 2006 audit of the Vehicle and Driver Licensing Unit.
Mr Clifford explained that that audit had been part of an overall review of various departments – aimed at thoroughly examining the payment of fees to Government.
“Once the Vehicle and Driver Licensing Unit was made aware of the omission, they immediately started to collect the fees,” the Minister said.
Mr Clifford acknowledged that the period of time between which the omission was discovered, and, when operators were advised that fees would be collected was too short.
“The public should have been advised and given a reasonable notice period before collection commenced,” he said adding that the collection of the fees had not been retroactively applied.
It was Government Backbencher, Lucille Seymour, who asked about a possible reduction in the fees, when Minister Clifford revealed that this could very well happen. The fees currently stand at $150 for vehicles constructed or adapted to seat less than 10 passengers; $200 for vehicles constructed or adapted to seat 10 to 25 passengers; and, $250 for vehicles constructed or adapted to seat more than 25 passengers.
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