City’s Transportation Workers Protest High Gasoline Prices

About 100 tuk-tuk drivers, motorcycle taxi drivers, vendors and other informal transportation workers protested against the high price of gasoline yesterday at the National Assembly, claiming the high petrol prices are cutting into their small profits. Vorn Pao, president of the Independent Democracy of Informal Economy Association, which represents more than 4,000 workers in the informal transportation sector, said he submitted a petition to the National Assembly asking for the government to decrease the price of gasoline to 4,000 riel, or about $1, per liter. “The government needs to drop the price because none of our workers are able to make any money, because they spend their profits paying for gasoline,” Mr. Pao said, adding that his organization would stage a mass protest on May 1 if the government does not reduce the price of gasoline. The price of gasoline in Phnom Penh was 5,650 riel, or about $1.41, per liter at the pumps yesterday, an increase of 10 percent from the price of gas in April last year, according to data from the National Institute of Statistics. Last month, the price of gasoline jumped to an all-time high of 5,950 riel, or about $1.48. …