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The Mozambican Public Integrity Centre (CIP), a civil society organisation, considers the increases in transport fares that have entered into force in Maputo today illegal.
“The increase in tariffs is illegal,” the CIP says in a statement, noting that the law calls for the industry regulator, the National Land Transport Institute (INATTER), to conduct a study before an increase comes into effect.
The organisation considers that Maputo municipality “did not justify its decision”, basing it purely on “carriers’ claims about the high cost of their operations”, without taking into account consumers’ interests.
Maputo municipality increased the price of public transport by three meticais to now cost between 10 meticais (13 Euro cents) and 12 meticais (15 Euro cents) today.
The cost of transport in Maputo had not been reviewed for several years, and part of the cost was borne being by the government through the payment of a fuel subsidy. The executive withdrew this support last year, prompting operators to increase pressure for a fare increase.
The means of transport are owned by dozens of private individuals who either put into circulation buses or light vehicles with various numbers of seats or even offer rides on open freight vans, generally considered overcrowded and unsafe.
The price of travel in the main Mozambican cities is a sensitive issue that has provoked protest in the past. An attempted increase in 2008, accompanied by a rise in the cost of other basic services, triggered violent demonstrations that resulted in deaths and the destruction of public and private assets.
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