 |  Cooking gas prices to drop - 12.12.2008
● Student fares and vehicle licences unchanged
Consumers can expect a drop in the price of cooking gas despite a proposed 50-cent tax per kilo.
Finance Minister Danny said this when he read the Year 2009 budget yesterday.
The lower prices will be charged because the consignment of gas due on the market soon has cost the Seychelles Petroleum Company less than earlier stocks.
He also said although bus fares will go up from R3 to R7, students who are now paying R2 will continue to pay the same fare and those currently getting bus passes from the Ministry of Education will continue to get them.
Mr Faure said the increase in bus fares is in line with government policy of removing all subsidies from parastatal companies, and from January 1 the subsidy given to the Seychelles Public Transport Corporation (SPTC) will cease.
Pensioners and the disabled will however continue to travel free of charge on SPTC buses, he said, adding there will be no increase in road licence fees in 2009.
“Government has also decided, for the time being, the levy on imported vehicles will remain the same for at least the next six months, while we undertake the review of our current tax regime,” Minister Faure said, adding that every household will now pay, on their water bill, a R25 levy every month to help protect the environment instead of the R10 now charged. | 
