Stop charging extra fares: Operator

A 13E route PMV operator in Lae wants PMV operators, drivers and crew to abide by the Independent Consumer and Competition Commission’s (ICCC) regulations and stop charging passengers extra fares.
Henry Yembi, who has two PMV buses serving the 13E route at Lae’s Back Road, said PMVs started collecting K2 instead of the normal K1 fare following an article in the newspaper last year which quoted ICCC as saying: “ICCC is currently conducting a review of PMV and taxi fares for approved routes throughout PNG for the regulatory period 2020-2024.
This project will be completed at the end of 2019 with a new price order and new fares to commence on Jan 1 2020,” ICCC stated.
However, ICCC has not formally announced the price changes.
Yembi said it was illegal to collect K2 without ICCC’s approval.
“We are still negotiating with ICCC for a change and to charge K2 ourselves is daylight robbery,” he said.
“We can be charged and our operating licences revoked if we go on to do things on our own.
“There are authorities in place to address our issue.
“We have God, the government and us (the people).
“Let’s not go beyond our authorities.”
Yembi said no one was stopping the increase in fares as ICCC had promised to do a change and everyone should wait patiently for that instead of doing things on their own and stealing.
ICCC said it would release a statement to clarify the issue soon.