Grab imposed P80 minimum fare — lawmaker

GRAB Philippines is illegally implementing a minimum fare of P80 without the approval of the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board, Rep. Jericho Nograles of PBA party- list said on Monday.

“Without any public hearing, Grab Philippines again unilaterally imposed a new illegal fare condition. Previously, during the April 17 LTFRB hearing, Grab Philippines denied to the Board that they impose an P80 minimum fare. Now, no less than the Grab App publicly declares that the company charges the same minimum fare. This brazen act shows not only disrespect to the regulators, but proof that Grab Philippines has no intention to follow Philippine laws,” Nograles said in a statement.

Nograles said Grab also denied claims of overcharging.

“When we showed them their own breakdown, they suddenly tried to divert the issue by claiming that they just wanted to help their driver partners,” he said.

The LTFRB has ordered Grab to stop charging P2 per minute, but the company petitioned the board to allow it to impose P2 per minute of travel because of the rising cost of fuel.

“When we exposed their jack up minimum fare, [Grab Philippines Country Head] Brian Cu was again denying but it turns out that they have been charging P80 instead of P40 for a very long time now,” Nograles said.

“After the acquisition of Uber, Grab services an estimated 2.5-million trips per week. Multiply that with a minimum overcharge of P40 per trip and you will get P100 million worth of unlawful charges against the riding public... If they continue to disregard the authority of the LTFRB, then they don’t have any legal standing to do business in the land transport sector,” he added.