Fijian Competition and Consumer Commission (FCCC) have received more than 30 complaints from members of the public about the increase in taxi fares.

FCCC Chief Executive Officer, Joel Abraham said that they had received a lot of issues pertaining to the taxi industry that has been raised by different stakeholders.

“We have received more than 30 complaints from members of the public and we have also received concerns from the members of the taxi operators,” Mr Abraham said.

“There are some drivers who say that they do not want the increase. Some said that they will wait and when the final authorisation is done, then they will do the calibration accordingly and some have already lined up and got the calibration done and got the charges included.

“We have met the Fijian Taxi Association. We had announced that we would go out and do further consultation with other members of the industry and we will continue to do so.

Mixed Reactions

“The FCCC being the consumer protection enforcement agency and the regulator is not here to please people; we are here to do what is correct for the industry. Doing so, we follow a very scientific methodology in assessing what the fares ought to be and that is applicable to any industry that we regulate,” Mr Abraham said.

“Our role in this was to determine fares and we have put in an interim charge and the changes are to the Flagfall and the waiting charge.

“In our assessment, we considered that setting increases in flag and waiting charges were the best approach that met our legislative objectives as well as the requirements to give relief to the taxi industry.”

Fijian Taxi Association

Mr Abraham also said they asked the Fijian Taxi Association if they consulted all their members before making their submission about the fare increase.

Taxi Association President Ratnesh Narayan said there was a big problem with this meter calibration as well as a communication breakdown.

“When FCCC increased the fare or when they are making changes in fare, this all should not have been done at the same time,” he said

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