It owes around Php 1.8 billion according to a lawmaker
Puwersa ng Bayaning Atleta partylist representative Jericho Nograles has accused Grab of illegally charging customers Php 2 per minute for their rides on top of its flagdown rate of Php 40 and Php 10 to Php 14 per kilometer ride.
Nograles is calling for Grab to refund its customers around Php 1.8 billion pesos for the past 5 months, which he says was acquired through illegal fare charges.
“Grab charges P2 per minute illegally. They’re not allowed to charge P2 per minute. The LTFRB has not allowed them to charge P2 per minute but they have charged P2 per minute to everyone,” Nograles said.
“I have calculated that in the past 5 months, they owe P1.8 billion to the riding public,” he added.
As far as the LTFRB knows, Grab doesn’t charge per travel time according to LTFRB Chairman Martin Delgra.
But according to Rappler, Grab Philippines head Brian Cu said that the “LTFRB is aware”.
Grab is under intense scrutiny thanks to Uber’s decision to sell its operations in Southeast Asia to Grab. Despite this, the Philippine Competition Commission has earlier ordered Uber and Grab to operate separately beyond the April 8 deadline, which was when Uber’s operations was supposed to transition to Grab.
Once Uber leaves the market, Grab will the only ride-hailing app with a significant footprint in the Philippines.
