Port Moresby City Governor raises concerns on rising Cost of Public Transport

Port Moresby City Governor, Powes Parkop has called for intervention as rising cost of public transport  in the city . "I am very concerned about the increase in PMV fares in the City by 100 percent from K1 to K2. This increase will cause more hardship to our people already facing hard economic times. Government must quickly intervene especially to support the public transport sector in the country. 

It is for this reason I have raised my concern about the cost of fuel in the last session of Parliament. The suspension of GST on basic goods is welcomed, but more urgently we need a strategy to deal with the rising cost of fuel. Suspending GST on basic goods is only dealing with the symptoms. We need to deal with the problem which is the high cost of fuel. The increase in bus fare now will make the impact of the GST suspension meaningless to the majority of our people. We need to come with up with a coherent strategy that can enable us to provide more cheaper fuel to the public. That is the key. Otherwise, the high price of fuel will increase the price of goods and services everywhere thereby negating the benefits of the GST suspension to the public. 

I have made a number of proposals for Government consideration, when I raised the question in the last Parliament session including, firstly, helping Puma Energy to get more crude oil locally from Kutubu at a lower price or paid in Kina basis and not in dollars, secondly, negotiating with countries like Venezuela to buy crude oil at lower prices, thirdly removing excise tax on fuel like we have done on basic goods or otherwise directly subsidizing fuel cost in some key sectors of the economy like public transport so operators like PMVs don’t have to increase their fees. 

On our part in the City, NCDC will be launching the new bus service after Easter and we are working on a plan to partner and bring some PMV operators into the service so they can be indirectly subsidized including raising their standard of operation. The details of this offer will be announced at the launch of the new bus services for the City. I will make the announcement soon for the date of the launch after Easter .

Next : Port Moresby city Commission moves to Deliver Best alternative Public Transport for City residents