Taxi and minibus drivers protest LPG price rise
Updated at 5.43pm: As many as 200 taxi and minibus drivers staged a slow-drive in Central on Monday, protesting a rise in liquefied petroleum gas prices which will take effect later this week.
The drivers gathered outside the Murray Building, which houses the Environment, Transport and Works Bureau, shortly after 10am, and drove around the building three times, local radio reported.
Traffic at the scene was affected as the drivers were making their way, with some chanting slogans.
They complained that the bureau had approved 12 designated stations of raising the price of LPG by 40 per cent, or $1 per litre, on Wednesday, under a new pricing system introduced earlier this year.
The new system allowed the gas companies to review LPG prices once every month, as opposed to once every six months under the old one.
Some drivers said increases in gas prices had put a burden on them, local radio reported.
??The price has risen by $1 per litre in two months. It??s unbearably expensive. A rise of such a large degree is unreasonable,?? a driver said.
The Motor Transport Workers?? General Union, which organised the protest, said they might elevate their actions if the government did not respond to their calls in two days.
