Gasoline subsidies for public drivers

Tax and Customs fees could be scrapped too

The Ministry of Finance (MoF) agreed to grant the Confederation of Public Drivers and Transport Unions subsidies on gasoline prices for one year, ending March 30, 2014. The MoF will meet again with Confederation representatives on Monday (March 11) to discuss the amounts of subsidies and the means to distribute them.

In September 2011 the government ran a three-month subsidy plan offering public transport drivers a monthly subsidy equivalent to $313. Abdul Ameer Najdeh, Head of the Public Drivers Union, said: “The Confederation is currently studying three options for distributing subsidies,” but did not elaborate any further.

One of the proposals calls for capping the prices of gasoline and fuel oil for public drivers at LL25,000 and LL20,000, respectively. Gasoline currently sells at around LL37,100, while fuel oil is priced at LL28,000.

According to Najdeh, “one of the proposals includes giving a daily allocation of 40 liters of gasoline for each taxi driver, and 60 liters of fuel for bus and truck drivers.” There are a total of 55,000 licensed public vehicles locally distributed among cabs (33,500), vans (4,000), buses (2,200), and trucks (15,100).

The Confederation has also proposed to the government removing Customs fees and taxes on gasoline for public drivers. Customs fees and taxes are around $5.3 per each 20-liter gasoline tank. The suggestion was discussed with the parliamentary commission for transport and public works, said Bassam Tleis, Head of the Confederation. The proposal will be listed on the Cabinet’s table again next week, he said.