(Eagle News) — Grab Philippines on Wednesday, April 11, denied illegally charging its passengers an additional P2 per minute of travel time.
In a statement, Grab Public Affairs head Leo Gonzales said the company “corresponded with” the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board “to present these changes” in pricing.
He said the LTFRB, based on Department Order 2015-011, had “oversight” over Grab’s setting of fares.
According to Gonzales, Grab Philippines “was given the opportunity to present in full our business model, supply and demand models and pricing structure during one of the Technical Working Group meetings in late July 2017.”
He said in the first place, the “per-minute charges were implemented to ensure that despite serious congestion issues on the road on a daily basis, hard-working (Transport Network Vehicle Service) drivers would have a greater chance of making ends meet and supporting their needs.”
He said the company has been “continuously transparent about this truth.”
“In fact, during times when questions were raised about fares in certain trips, we would always back compute and provide the basic formula for the same, including the per minute charges,” he said.
On Tuesday, April 10, Nograles said in a television interview that because of the illegal charges, Grab should refund around P1.8 billion to its customers.