This morning on Sunup on 7, the Ports Commissioner explained the need for the increase and what it means for the water taxi operators.

Kaylon Young - Commissioner of Ports
"What is does is it gives us more finances to do more services for the consumers for the water taxi operators. One of the things we have to do is ensure the routes are safe, ensure the vessels are safe, the vessels have the proper equipment on board, proper inspection of these vessels. The navigational aids out at sea. So the funds goes right back into the operations and into the services that we offer the public."

Host:
"Who was consulted during this process? and I say this because from the feedback that we saw when the news was aired last week, people were saying, now we have to pay more, imagine the cost of living for the people who have to commute daily, so what was the consultation like for us to be able to reach to a new fee of three dollars?"

Kaylon Young - Commissioner of Ports
"Well this was several years ago we consulted with operators but I think you're referring to what the public is saying about an increase in water taxi fares. Let me categorically say there's no increase in water taxi fares, every water taxi operator has to apply to increase their fare so the operator cannot increase their fare unanimously or without the consent of the Belize Port Authority. So what was that increase was just the reinstatement of the user fee, which is separate from the fare itself and so that was discussed previously with the operators, before the enactment of the regulation now it's just that fee we're putting back as what was implemented."

"The water taxi operators are more of the collecting agencies for the Belize Port Authority, it's like, for example, with GST, and the shops are the collecting agencies for that GST tax and it's passed on to the authorities so the water taxi operators are the collecting agencies for the Belize Port Authority. they would collect that user fee and then they would pass that on to the Belize Port Authority. So it should not affect the operations of the water taxi and it doesn't mean that they have to increase their fares because the fares does not change."

Speaking anonymously, one water taxi operator told us, quote "absolutely nothing good comes from the government raising fees..."