A committee has been set-up to review the current bus fares.

Minister for Economy, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum, says the eight member steering committee will look into the various factors that go into the determining the bus fare rates.

The committee will be chaired by the Fijian Competition and Consumer Commission’s chief executive Joel Abraham.

Other members include the chief executive of Consumer Council Premila Kumar, Fiji Bus Operators Association president Richard Lal, Solicitor General Sharvada Sharma, LTA chief executive Carmine Piantedosi, Fiji Chamber of Commerce Peter Mazey, RBF Governor Arif Ali and FRCS chief executive Vishvanath Dass.

Sayed-Khaiyum says the new bus fares will be implemented from January 1st as announced in the 2017/2018 National Budget.

“With various different types of skills sets they will bring with them, represented by the level of knowledge and intelligence they have from their respective organizations, they will bring the respective data, we expect them to also go around Fiji to have public consultations and public input, input from bus companies too that will be represented through the Bus Association – but there is nothing stopping them from talking to individual bus companies. So we need to hear from those bus companies as to what their issues are.”

The bus fares were last reviewed in 2011 when the price of diesel had sky rocketed to USD140.

The government and the bus companies had reached an agreement back then that the VAT component of the bus fares will be kept by the companies to help them in those times.

Sayed-Khaiyum says the fuel prices have decreased since and there are other factors that also need to be considered while determining the new fares.