The Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure (MTI) is reportedly negotiating an increase in the transport to the different municipalities of the country, which would range between 20%, for the ordinary ticket, and 25%, for the express service, according to media reports on Matagalpa, Carazo and Managua.
The president of the Cooperativa de Transportes del Norte (Cotran), Francisco Moreno Rodríguez, told the magazine Mosaicfrom Matagalpa, that the new rates would have already been negotiated with the MTI and that he hopes they will be made official during Holy Week, which is when there is more influx of passengers.
“With those four years without having a tariff revision, more than 14% of currency devaluation has accumulated and all our costs are dollarized, the only thing that is not dollarized is labor and minor expenses, but spare parts, oil, labor of mechanical work, prices have skyrocketed and they have suffocated us”, said the president of Cotran.
Currently the ordinary Matagalpa-Managua ticket costs 73 cordobas and —once the adjustment is applied— the new rate will be 90 cordobas. Meanwhile, on the express buses the ticket will go from 95 to 120 córdobas.
The adjustment to transport rates occurs in the midst of a wave of increases driven —mainly— by the increase in the international price of oil that has affected the cost of fuel, although for Easter the regime announced last Friday that it will freeze the prices for both diesel and regular and super gasoline.
The last adjustment to intermunicipal transport rates was applied in March 2018, a month before a wave of protests against the regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo broke out in Nicaragua.
In the bus terminals of the Roberto Huembes and Mayoreo markets, in Managua, intermunicipal transport users expressed concern about the possible increase in the fare, since in real terms this would be up to 25 córdobas on routes such as Managua-Estelí.
The Nicaragua Investiga media also reported that carriers from the department of Carazo are in a similar negotiation. The ordinary ticket Managua-Carazo would go from 40 to 50 cordobas.
Last March, carriers from the west of the country tried to raise the express ticket to the city of León, which currently stands at 71 cordobas, but the MTI did not grant their request. When applying the 25% adjustment, the new rate would be 89 cordobas.
A nationwide shipping company also notified its clients, on April 4, about the application of a tariff adjustment, which is due to the increase in fuel and its derivatives.
The transport cooperatives located in Managua avoided referring to the subject, in such a way that they do not confirm or discard the information. According to the newspaper La Prensa, the carriers were pressured by MTI to prevent them from leaking information.
