By Umamah Bakharia

With warnings that the price of fuel can spike to as much as R40 a litre because of the Russian/Ukraine conflict, taxi operators say rising fuel costs could lead to increases in fares as they seek to recover losses.

Officials of the National Taxi Alliance (NTA) say taxi fares will be under discussion and commuters will know whether there will be an increase by the end of the month.

Radio Islam speaks to NTA spokesperson Theo Malele on the effects of the fuel increase on taxi owners.

“It’s going to be difficult for us to determine the kind of tariff increase that has to be affected but we are still [in discussion] to find a solution to this issue,” says Malele.

According to Malele, commuters are not supposed to be paying more than 10% of their disposable income on public transport. However, he says that this is due to the government not supporting its citizens through subsidies.

“People are now paying almost 60% of their earnings, they are basically working for transport and that is a situation that is unbearable,” says Malele.

He adds that NTA had the view that government would increase the capital subsidies to 50% of the retail value of a new vehicle to help taxi owners financially.