Govt decision on new bus fares in a day or two

FE REPORT
The government wants to take one or two days to decide on the proposed hike in bus fares for the city and long routes, but bus owners apprehend the delay in declaring revised bus fares in line with recent fuel price hike might break discipline in fare collection.
"We will make the announcement of our decision regarding the new bus fares by today (Wednesday)," said Road Transport, Bridges, Railways and Shipping Minister Shaikh Rabiul Alam after a meeting with transport leaders presenting the government's stance regarding the issue at his ministry's conference room in the day.
State Minister for Road Transport and Bridges Habibur Rashid Habib, Member of Parliament Shamsur Rahman Shimul Biswas, Dhaka Bus Owners Association President M A Baten and General Secretary Saiful Alam took part in the meeting.
Others included Mohammad Faruk Talukder of Sohag Paribahan and Mohammad Hanif of Hanif Paribahan.
Meeting sources said the minister listened to the demands of the transport leaders and informed them about their position upon being a new government and facing a volatile economy currently.
The minister also cleared them that the government increased the fuel cost due to global situation created following the US-Iran war.
The transport leaders requested the government to consider the fare hike as it was proposed after a meeting of the Fare Adjustment Committee (FAC) and bus fare adjustment was not done after 2022 despite a significant rise in fuel cost and dollar price increase by 44 per cent.
They said when the last fare adjustment was done in November 2021, dollar rate was Tk 84 which has increased to Tk122.
Bangladesh Road Transport Authority submitted the proposal of the FAC after holding a meeting on Sunday night soon after the government's decision to increase fuel cost by Tk 15 to Tk 20 per litre came into effect.
By raising the prices of diesel, octane, and petrol by Tk 15-Tk 20 per litre, the government has tried to lessen its subsidy burden that had increased amid the global volatile situation due to the US and Iran war.
The committee finally agreed to the proposal to hike 22 paisa per kilometre per passenger for both metropolitan and inter district routes considering the present dollar and fuel costs.
It, however, proposed to keep the minimum bus fare for city at Tk10.
General Secretary of Dhaka Bus Owners Association Saiful Alam, however, said since the last hike, all the bus operators have been maintaining the present fares without any hike following association's request.
While talking with the FE over phone, he said discipline might be broken if the government takes long time to declare the revised bus fares; as none can run business with loss days after days.
A leader of a long route bus company also said Tk15 increase for operating 1000 litre diesel cannot be possible to adjust by them for days after days.
The dollar adjustment is necessary as 100 per cent parts of the buses are imported.
smunima@yahoo.com