The United Bus Driver Association’s call for an emergency general meeting (see related story) comes after yet another fuel price hike earlier this week. They also want to talk about current fares set by government.
However, increasing these hurts especially lower- and middle income earners who typically depend on local buses. That will significantly contribute to their already rising expenses.
The cost-of-living is going up around the world primarily due to war in the Middle East and its effect on oil and energy prices. Even if peace is restored, it will take months before Arabian production and supply normalise.
In the meantime, efforts are being made globally to mitigate the consequences and prevent spiralling inflation. One way is to temporarily reduce taxes and duties on imported fuel, like many countries including neighbouring Anguilla and St. Kitts & Nevis, are doing.
As reported in Thursday’s edition, the Netherlands won’t be one of them, opting instead for a 1 billion euros package of measures to soften the blow. Among them are increasing tax-free job travel from 23 to 25 cents per kilometre and halving the road tax during the rest of this year for vehicles with grey plates like work vans, while 50 million euros will also be spent on supporting the poorest households and improving home insulation to keep down heating bills.
However, one should keep in mind that relatively more people use public transportation such as bus-, tram-, metro- and train services in the European- than in the Caribbean part of the kingdom, where having a car is not seen as a luxury. Consequently, when gasoline and diesel go up at the pump, a larger part of the population directly feels it.
But so do bus drivers and their passengers. It is thus hard to argue against a tariff hike under the present circumstances.
Considering the widespread impact of such a move, reducing fuel taxes at least somewhat might be worth reconsidering. It could well be the proverbial lesser of two evils.
