Vodafone Fiji Acting CEO Ronald Prasad says disposable e-ticketing cards were meant to be a short term solution and they are looking to get rid of it.
This is after fijivillage noticed some bus drivers taking cash from passengers due to the unavailability of disposable cards because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Taking cash by bus drivers is unlawful and they face charges and fines under the law.
The Vodafone CEO says they have been in consultation with key stakeholders to get rid of the disposable cards altogether because they have been having continuous challenges with regards to getting disposable cards in the country for some time now.
He says the disposable cards also causes a lot of pollution because people usually dump them in buses and bus stands.
When questioned on the issue of drivers demanding cash from passengers, Prasad says that is still illegal because there is nothing stopping people from going to a Vodafone outlet and picking up a free permanent card.
He also says the first replacement is free and adds they have distributed around 1.5 million permanent cards so far.
