Road Town, Tortola - The Ministry of Communications and Works concluded its series of four Taxi Tariff Town Meetings on Jost Van Dyke on Wednesday and is now one step closer to amending the taxi tariff which is over 15 years old.

“The purpose of the meetings was to give all stakeholders an opportunity to share their opinions and concerns regarding the proposed taxi tariff,” Minister for Communications and Works, Honourable Julian Fraser RA told the Department of Information and Public Relations.

“Now that we have heard the feedback, the next step is for Government to come up with a proposal that will consider all the input garnered at these meetings,” the minister explained.
Deputy Secretary Mrs. Myrna Ferdinand reported that the meetings were very helpful to the process. “We had a wide array of feedback from the different islands which definitely will be useful to us in submitting a counter proposal on behalf of Government,” Mrs. Ferdinand said.

The next step is for Government to vet the proposed tariffs. The Ministry of Communications and Works formed an adhoc committee with the sole purpose of vetting the proposed tariffs, to ensure that the rates are fair.

The adhoc committee is comprised of the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Communications and Works, the Director of Public Works Department, the Chief Licensing Officer, the Sister Islands Coordinator, a representative from the BVI Tourist Board and the BVI Taxi Commission, as well as Mr. Courtney DeCastro and Mr. Khoy Rymer.

The public meetings began on February 17 at the Ashford Waters Community Centre on Virgin Gorda and continued on February 24 at the Sir Rupert Briercliffe Hall on Tortola then moved to the Emile Dunlop Community Centre on March 9 and concluded at the Jost Van Dyke Primary School on March 10.

The taxi tariffs under the Road Traffic Passenger Fares Regulations were instituted in 1990 under section 56 of the Road Traffic Act with the purpose of regulating the taxi industry.