Passenger User Fee for Water Taxis Reinstated to Pre-COVID Rates, Causing Fare Increases

The Belize Ports Authority has increased the passenger user fee for water taxi passengers.  The three dollar increase took effect yesterday.  Travelers on the sea are now being affected by the increase as water taxis have also increased their prices by three dollars.  A round trip ticket to Caye Caulker has gone for fifty nine dollars to sixty two dollars while a round trip to San Pedro has gone from eighty nine dollars to ninety two dollars per person.  Essentially, the price change by the Port Authority is more of a reverting to the five-dollar pre-covid cost than an actual increase.  Acting Ports Commissioner Kaylon Young explained that the reduction was intended to help water taxi operators manage the economic challenges of the pandemic. However, the reinstated full service charge is essential to fund necessary safety services for the public.

Kaylon Young, Acting Ports Commissioner: “Just want the Belizean public to know it’s not an increase in the water tax fares. The water taxes would have to apply to the Belize Port Authority to increase their fares so the fares are set. It’s just an enforcement of the regulation that’s two years almost three years old. Yeah we’re just enforcing that regulation now. It was a SI Number 129 of 2022. Yeah this user fee collected it is used for us to ensure that we have safe waterways out there. We do more patrol, more enforcement. We have to service the navigational aids, the lights, the markers out at sea so the boaters, the boating public have safe waterways to use. And so all of these things comes at a price and so it’s just that we could generate funds to provide more service to our stakeholders, to our customers. And so, yeah, that’s just the reason why or one of the reasons why we decided to just enforce and implement the regulation to its fullest.”

Love News understands that the return to the original fee is in accordance with the Water Taxi (Amendment) Regulations, Statutory Instrument 129 of 2022.  The five-dollar fee is for water taxi fares in the range of ten to one hundred dollars.