MANILA - Regulators on Tuesday ordered ride-hailing service Grab to pay P10 million in penalties and to reimburse its passengers by way of rebates for imposing a P2 per-minute charge.

LTFRB orders GRAB to pay TEN MILLION PESOS in penalties for overcharging and to REIMBURSE its passengers by way of rebates for imposing the P2 per minute waiting time charge pic.twitter.com/pKDeFFpPPn — Doris Bigornia (@DorisBigornia) July 10, 2018

The Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board said once it makes its decision final, Grab should pay the penalty immediately and the riders should be paid back in 20 days.

Grab will reserve comment until it has "fully studied and analyzed the matter" with its legal team, Public Affairs Head Leo Gonzales said.

The LTFRB suspended Grab's extra-charge scheme in April after it was revealed that the app-based transport service failed to inform riders about it.

The company last month said it began subsidizing fares to make up for the suspension of the scheme that hurt drivers' earnings.

Since the suspension, drivers and operators supposedly earned only a net average of P655 per day from driving 17 to 18 hours, from P1,588 per day doing the same amount of work with the travel charge, according to one representative.

In June, the LTFRB secured "full authority" from the Department of Transportation to regulate ride-hailing companies and their partner drivers.

Grab has come under closer scrutiny from regulators since it took over the Southeast Asian operations of rival Uber in April.



- report from Doris Bigornia, ABS-CBN News