Tag Archives: February

Lagos BRT bus fares to increase from February

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An operator of the Lagos State Bus Rapid Transit, BRT, scheme, Primero Transport Services, has announced plans to increase its fares on all routes in February.

The company’s Managing Director, Fola Tinubu, made the disclosure in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria in Ikorodu on Thursday.

Mr. Tinubu said that the increase was as result of its increasing operational cost.

The company has maintained a fare of N75, N120, and N195 from Ikorodu to Mile 12, Fadeyi, and CMS, respectively, since it started operations in November 2015.

According to him, the company will introduce new fares which will take effect between the end of February and early March.

Mr. Tinubu said: “we are going to increase our price because of the situation in the country, our cost has just gone through the roof.

“At this time last year, we bought 1.2 million litres of diesel monthly at N120 per litre, we are now buying at N260; tyres that cost N70,000 each now go for N140,000.

“All the parts used for the buses are imported so they’ve all doubled or tripled in price; and we have no choice but to continue to buy them.

“So, in doing that we have to find a way to make it work because you all know that the buses were bought in China; so, we have a foreign dollar component in our debt portfolio.

“When we bought the buses it was N168 to a US dollar and now we are talking of N470 and we still have to pay the dollar component back.

“So, our debt has increased and our cost of operation has gone through the roof, and we have managed to keep the pricing same for now.

“In fact, right now, we are subsidising every person we carry, and if you are running a business, you can only do that for so long.’’

He said though the company was aware of its social responsibility, but the increase in fares was inevitable if its bus services were to be kept on a sustainable footing.

“The airlines have increased theirs between 200 per cent and 300 per cent but we will not even do 100 per cent.

“So, it is going to be something manageable for people. I will try not to put a figure to that now because the governor still has to approve it, and I don’t want to pre-empt him.

“What I can say is that it’s going to be a marginal increase and not a drastic increase and still less than what the commercial bus operators are charging right now.

“We are not even going to be close to that; but there is no other solution to it because if we do not, it is going to be recipe for disaster down the road,” Mr. Tinubu, said.

NAN reports that operators of the yellow-painted commercial bus currently charge N150, N200, and N350 from Ikorodu to Mile 12, Fadeyi, and CMS, respectively.

On the issue of delays caused during drivers changeover, Mr. Tinubu said the company had introduced the Early Riser System to check the menace.

“We send a total of 75 buses out at 4.30 so that when majority of the busmen are changing over the early risers are still on the wheels.

“As time goes on, we may increase to 100 buses so that that way it would completely eliminate 1.30 p.m. – 2.30 p.m. delay issue.”

 

Source: NAN

2016 Budget Passage Not Possible In February– NASS

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The National Assembly says its proposed date of February 25 for the passage of the 2016 budget is not feasible.

Addressing a news conference in Abuja, the chairmen of the Senate and House of Representatives committees on Appropriation, Senator Danjuma Goje and Representative Abdulmumin Jibrin said the February 25 target for the passage of the 2016 budget is no longer realistic.

The two lawmakers said that the National Assembly observed during the ongoing budget defence that government ministries have padded their budgets and because of this, lawmakers require more time to thoroughly work on the budget.

In the last two weeks, government ministries, departments and agencies have been visiting the National Assembly to defend their 2016 budget proposals.

But one common trend in almost all the budget defence sessions is that the agencies are complaining of insufficient funds appropriated to them and are asking for more money.

Credit: ChannelsTv

Senate To Pass 2016 Budget In February- Ndume

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Senate Leader Ali Ndume, yesterday, disclosed that the upper legislative chamber will likely pass the N6.08 trillion 2016 budget into law latest February.

Ndume also described a recent call by the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), that the National Assembly should commence an impeachment process against President Muhammadu Buhari, on alleged involvement in the budget controversy as ‘a joker’.

Addressing Senate correspondents, Ndume reiterated that Senate would conclude and pass the 2016 budget before end of February, adding that lawmakers had planned to pass the budget on record time, but blamed the delay on recent misgivings about the document.

“We are targeting end of February to round off everything about the 2016 national budget.? If not for the talk about a missing budget, we would have gone far. But, we are still determined to pass the budget on time and that will be before the end of February,” he said.

On PDP’s call for the impeachment of Buhari, he asked rhetorically: “Did we kill the PDP for what they did to us in the last 16 years? The call for the impeachment of the president by the PDP is what they are supposed to do. They are in the opposition. Buhari is the kind of leader the country wants.

“His emergence is divine intervention. The game the PDP is playing is understandable. The budget is not missing.”

Last week, the PDP urged the National Assembly to commence an impeachment process against President Buhari over the alleged involvement of his aide, Senator Ita Enang in changing of figures in the 2016 budget earlier submitted to a joint session on December 22.

Speaking on the alleged missing budget, he re-echoed his earlier position that the budget was not missing, rather, the Senate committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions was mandated to carryout an integrity test on the two copies of the budget before the Red Chamber.

“?Not only that the budget was not missing, the budget cannot be missing. The budget comes in copies. The copy submitted by Mr. President cannot be missing. There are some issues that came later surrounding the budget.

“We told the Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions to find out what happened and they discovered that there were two versions. What the president submitted as a bill is still there. Nothing has changed.”

Credit: Sun