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A move by the Pub­lic Trans­port Ser­vice Cor­po­ra­tion (PTSC) to reim­ple­ment a $15,000 li­cens­ing fee for pri­vate ex­cur­sion bus­es has been deemed to be un­law­ful.

De­liv­er­ing a judg­ment, yes­ter­day, High Court Judge Frank Seep­er­sad up­held a law­suit brought by the Pri­vate Bus Own­ers/Op­er­a­tors As­so­ci­a­tion and its pres­i­dent Naz­im Mo­hammed against the cor­po­ra­tion, the Trans­port Com­mis­sion­er, and the Of­fice of the At­tor­ney Gen­er­al.

Jus­tice Seep­er­sad ruled that the as­so­ci­a­tion and Mo­hammed had a le­git­i­mate ex­pec­ta­tion that the pub­lic ser­vice ve­hi­cle (PSV) li­cence would not be charged with­out jus­ti­fi­ca­tion or con­sul­ta­tion af­ter it was not en­forced be­tween 2004 and 2023, when the PTSC sought to rein­tro­duce it.