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Getting your Trinity Audio player ready…
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By Own Correspondent
On the 27th of May 2022, ZUPCO announced new bus fares effective 1 June 2022. The old and new fares as well as the fare percentage changes are presented hereunder.
The new fares are coming after a wave of related increases such as the ZWL component of toll fees (increased by 73% across the board as of Monday the 23rd of May, 2022), fuel (diesel at US$1.74 and petrol at US$1.68 from the 20th of May, 2022) and vehicle insurance premiums.
These increases are coupled with the wild price increases of grocery items in the past two months which have increased the vulnerability of the common man. Chief among many social ills building up in the economy is that the government is turning a blind eye to the effect of these price increases on the welfare of lowly salaried civil servants and private sector employees.
Most employees cannot pay school fees for their children and neither can they pay for access to health facilities, let alone afford decent meals and living conditions. Worryingly, the government is upwardly reviewing its service fees with margins that outdo salary increment margins – thus more is being taken away from the worker without commensurate compensation for the ravaging inflation. It is high time government annexes salary adjustments to the ruling inflation in a given month if the welfare of citizens is to be restored.