And as all of us know, most times, prices go up but never come down. Commuters worry justifiable that these new prices will never go back down. We asked the minister who is also an economist:
Dr. Louis Zabaneh, Minister of Transport
"Well, you're right to point out the economic term is that prices are sticky. And so as they go up, it's harder for them to come down. But I think that in fairness to our people that we have to look at that. Now, remember that the subsidy is there just to address the increase in prices with the hope that fuel prices will come back down to some level. Unfortunately, as you're watching the world prices, they have gone up in the past week or so. And therefore, this is a three month arrangement that we're hoping would give us enough time for some down trending in the world prices. In terms of fares for commuters, well, remember these are ceiling prices. So certain operators may hopefully find it in their best interest to adjust their prices again once they don't have that pressure. And I will tell you that even before all of this came to being, that on certain routes, you had different operators with lower rates than the prescribed rates. So I anticipate that some of that may occur once things stabilize a little bit."
The fuel subsidy will only be provided for three months in the first instance.