A big number of Uganda's taxi operators have relocated to southern Sudan, sparking the ongoing high transport fares along the various routes in and around the city.
The relocation, blamed on the high daily and monthly levies by park management authorities, government's high taxes and tough safety policies on taxis, has led to a hike in traveling fares in the capital city of Kampala.
The fares on each route have nearly doubled and in some instances in the rush hours, the taxi operators increase the charges three times after the owners of the vehicles have either shifted their operations to southern Sudan or sold their vehicles to Sudanese.
This has led to shortage of taxis in the city, resulting in the current erratic transport fares to and outside Kampala. Many Ugandan taxi operators are relocating to Juba and Yei in southern Sudan and are operating on all routes.
A Ugandan taxi driver working in Juba, quoted by Sunday Monitor, said that Ugandan taxi drivers are dominating the public transport industry in southern Sudan.
"Ugandan taxis are so many in southern Sudan and they are the majority on all routes. Ugandans established a taxi park in Juba called Custom Park which is the center of all routes and most of the drivers are Ugandan," Richard Ssembatya said.
He said the park has more than 500 fourteen-seater taxis, most of which are owned by Ugandans.
He revealed that southern Sudan offers better business environment than Uganda because of fairer taxes. Each taxi pays southern Sudan authority a customs fee of 40,000 Ugandan shillings (23 U.S. dollars) to cross the border, 18,000 shillings (10 dollars)for insurance at the border and 100 dollars for approval of operating a passenger service vehicle.
John Kitasimbwa, the spokesman of Commercial Taxis Owners and Transporters Development Association, confirmed the taxis relocation to southern Sudan, but noted the number is still small.
The Transport Licensing Board said there are about 20,000 commuter taxis in Uganda but the demand for them is higher.
Kitasimbwa argued that the number of those shifted to southern Sudan was not big enough to cause shortage of passenger vehicles in the city. But he attributed the shortage of taxis to the massive purchase by Sudanese.
Meanwhile, he acknowledged that most taxi operators relocated to run away from high taxes here. "I personally know taxi owners operating in Juba but they do not go there because they want. It is the problem of government policies and taxes that are forcing people to relocate."
Source: Xinhua