Fiji Bus Operators Association President, Richard Lal has refuted any notion of a bus strike.

Lal was responding to a media statement issued yesterday by the chair of the independent bus fare review committee and Fijian Competition and Consumer Commission, Chief Executive Joel Abraham.

In the statement, Abraham is urging bus owners to reconsider their plans to go on strike as this will negatively affect thousands of Fijians.

Abraham goes on to say that it is very irresponsible of the bus owners to go on strike.

“We have never ever threatened or put the country of the people to ransom as stated by the chairman, the CEO of FCCC he’s using those terms and words and he needs to explain that. The industry has said that due to cash flow issues, operations may stop because certain members may not be able to or afford to buy the fuel. We’ve never threatened anybody, we’ve never put the country or the people to ransom or never used the word strike in our deliberations anywhere.”

Lal says the association is working on the newly requested financials to submit to the committee to review the current bus fares.

Meanwhile, Abraham maintains that no changes will be made to bus fares that will affect thousands of Fijian families, without proper justification.