Proprietors of Coaster Omnibuses will be required to pay an annual park user fee of Shs1.2 million once the proposed amendments to the local government regulations are approved.
Currently, the aforementioned groups of drivers are paying Shs2.4 million like the bus owners, which has prompted them to petition the Ministry of Local Government.
According to the Minister of Local Government Mr Rapheal Magyezi, his ministry has started the process of amending the regulation within the local government act on park user fees to come up with a standardized figure for coasters
This followed numerous petitions from coaster bus operators to the Ministry which it conquered hence calling for a need to reduce the fees by half of what the big buses are paying.
According to the Statutory Instrument 2020 No. 73. of the Local Governments (Amendment of Fifth Schedule) Statutory Instrument, 2020, 17B, (c) a person operating a medium omnibus or heavy omnibus shall pay two million four hundred thousand shillings (2,400,000/=) per year.
Minister Magyezi, said KCCA and other cities and local governments, had put the fees for coasters at the same rate as big buses’.
In the last week of August this year, passengers in different public and private bus parks across the country got stranded as bus operators went on strike, protesting Kampala Capital City Authority’s (KCCA) move to close city bus parks over non-compliance to payment of the annual park user fees.
