I read in yesterday's newspapers the Maxi Taxi Association is now calling on the Government to pay the cost of their conversion from diesel to CNG. The association claims that the cost will be in the region of $50,000 which I find hard to believe.

What I would like to know is what is the real cost of converting to CNG when all of the incentives being offered by the Government are factored in.

What I would also like to ask maxi-taxi drivers is exactly how much more freeness do they want?

Maxi-taxi drivers do not pay income tax, like hundreds of thousands of people who use their service. In addition to their untaxed, unknown income levels, the level of frustration maxi-taxi drivers cause on roads everywhere in this country is beyond madness! 

They stop anywhere, do anything, speed in traffic and on top of it all, have no compunction about hurling abuses at anyone who tries to correct them, even if children are within earshot.

In addition, maxi-taxi drivers, like everyone else, will now not be paying Value Added Tax on approximately 6,000 food items when they go to the supermarket.

 Maxi-taxi drivers have also, for many years, benefitted from the low cost of diesel as it is subsidised by the State.  In fact, I believe diesel fuel costs lower in Trinidad and Tobago than anywhere else in the world.

And after all of these State funded benefits, they are now asking the Government to pay to convert their engines from diesel to CNG?

This is taking the culture of entitlement and freeness a little too far. If each citizen of this country had to pay the full cost of living on a daily basis, as a signal of true and not just perceived independence, we'd see things differently!

 Jeewan Jaimungal

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