The Rwanda Utilities and Regulatory Agency RURA have announced new tariffs for hiring vehicles and taxi charges.
It has been stated that for every Kilometer in a taxi (taxi voiture or special hire taxi), passengers will be charged Frw500 per kilometer.
Airport Taxis have been charging Frw509 per kilometer.
Non Airport Taxis have been charging Frw433 per kilometer. Hiring a Taxi per day had been cost at Frw42,000.
RURA has also directed that all taxis be fitted with gadgets that can record distance travelled from which passengers shall be charged. Or passenger shall be charged according to time spent in the car.
The tariff has been changing since 2005 although there have been disagreements between taxi operators and the regulatory agency RURA.
In 2005, Airport taxi charged Frw3000 per hour and by then hiring the taxi for a day used to cost Frw20,000.
In 2008 the tariff was adjusted to Frw 4000 charged per hour for airport Taxi and Frw30,000 charged for hiring the taxi for the whole day.
In 2011 the charges for hiring Airport taxi was adjusted to Frw4,000 per hour and Frw 40,000 per day.
During the meeting, participants failed to agree on specific time a taxi should wait for a passenger.
Kayitare Deogratias representing Kigali Taxi Services told the meeting that normally taxi operators wait for the passenger for only 15 minutes. After that, the passenger is charged Frw50 on extra 15 minutes.
He said this was always notified to the passenger before using the taxi services.
However, RURA was of the view that passengers should not be charged ‘Waiting Time’ before a clear position is adopted.
Ndikuriyo Innocent representative of Airport taxi operators commended the new tarrifs which he said would reduce disagreements with passengers.
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