Questions over rationality of hiking bus fare by 80pc

Public transport owners and workers have been feeling the heat of the economic fallout of novel coronavirus pandemic any others, but the justification of increasing bus fares by 80 per cent has been questioned.

The road transport ministry increased the fare during a one-hour meeting, without any detailed analysis. Besides, raising the fare is a temporary measure, but no one can ensure that the fare will revert to the previous amount when things are normal again. On the whole, giving way to the pressure of transport owners, the government has imposed the burden of extra fare on the people.

Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) decided to keep half of the seats of buses and minibuses vacant when the government decided to allow transports to operate on a limited scale. Amid this, the transport owners demanded a fare hike to mitigate their loss. A BRTA committee on analysing expenses decided to raise the fare by 80 per cent of all buses that run in Dhaka and inter-district from a meeting at its office on Saturday morning. The decision will be implemented from 1 June, the date stipulated for buses to run on a limited scale.

Launch owners also demanded increased fares as they will have to carry less passengers amid the coronavirus situation. But the controlling body, Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA), said they would raise the fare after monitoring the situation.

Sources said the issue of raising fares would be considered once the BIWTA authorities were confirmed that the launch owners have been investing in health safety.

Several ministry officials think the road transport ministry and BRTA has missed the chance to take time and observe the situation before raising the fare so quickly and whimsically.

The railway ministry has not decided to raise train fares though it has decided to run only 19 pairs of trains out of 300, and the trains will be kept 50 per cent vacant. The rail authorities will also ensure almost all of the health safety measures are in place.

Road transport ministry and BRTA sources said the transport sector was putting pressure on them to increase the fare even before the coronavirus outbreak. Accordingly, BRTA had made a draft proposal to raise the fare by 40 per cent. But the government did not publicise this because is was already facing criticism about its failure to resolve the prevailing chaos in the transport sector. Now the coronavirus crisis has given them the chance to double the fare.

Acvitists for passengers’ rights said the fare could be increased only after it was confirmed that the transport owners were actually investing in health safety and also keeping 50 per cent of the seats vacant. Besides, there is a due process of analysing things before raising the fare. This could have lessened the burden on the passengers. But now, the rights activists fear, extra fares would be taken from the passengers as in the past. Then again, the transport sector has to pay over Tk 20 billion as 'toll' annually. Raising fares would hardly benefit transport owners and workers unless this extortion was stopped.

Speaking to Prothom Alo, BRTA director (administration) Yusuf Ali Mollah, who is also the acting chairman, said the fare has been increased considering the owners expenditure for health safety and carrying only half their capacity of passengers.

He, however, had no satisfactory reply as to whether the fare could have been raised after observing whether the owners were following the rules. He also failed to clarify how the fare would be reverted to what it was previously.

Mollah said as per rules the fare is supposed to revert to its previous position automatically.

BRTA sources said a total of 20 different expenses, including the cost of the bus, bank loan and fuel price, are taken into consideration to determine the fare. The fare could be raised if any of these expenses increase. But the price of nothing was increased in the time under consideration.

Currently, the passenger fare of a minibus in Dhaka per kilometre is Tk 1.60 and for a large bus is Tk 1.70. Inter-district fare is Tk 1.42 per kilometre. Minimum fare inside Dhaka for minibus is fixed at Tk 5 and for large bus Tk 7. Owners of inter-district bus fix the fare adding the ferry or bridge toll.

The fare has been fixed considering that 20 per cent seats of the buses that ply within Dhaka city would remain empty while 10 per cent seats of inter-district buses would remain empty.

As per law, the number of seats of minibus is 30 and of a large bus 51. But the owners of Dhaka city buses have increased the number of seats by 20 to 40 per cent. This suggests the owners do not incur loss in the existing fare even if 50 per cent of their seats remain empty. Besides, all owners have been charging extra fare from the passengers, sometimes almost double of the fare fixed by the government, in the name of 'sitting service'. The transport owners and workers would count the 80 per cent along with that already added fare.

At the same time, the government fixes the fare of non-AC bus only. The owners fix the fare of AC and luxury bus. Sometimes, the fare of those buses is fixed in such a way that the owners do not count loss even if 20-30 per cent of the seats remain empty. As a whole it is completely unjustified to increase the fare by 80 per cent.

Transport owners and workers and BRTA officials said they could avoid counting losses with the current fare, but extortion is eating up their profit. This is why they insisted on reining in extortion.

Around 6,000 bus and minibus of around 175 companies ply in and around Dhaka . Around 2,000 people own them. Many of the owners have just one bus. Their families depend on that income alone. Influential leaders of the ruling party are MDs and chairmen of the companies. Some of them are relatives of the high officials of law enforcement agencies. They buy just one or a few buses and becomes the boss of the company. The general owners pay them Tk 800-2000 every day for allowing their bus to run under that specific company. This money is called GP or Gate Pass.

Transport sources said a portion of this money is spend to 'manage' the law enforcement, some is spent on 'ticket checkers' at different places and some for running the offices. But the influential leaders take the major portion of that money.

The buses of Sarbik Paribahan, owned by the family of ruling Awami League presidium member and an MP Shahjahan Khan’s family, plies on several routes. His brother Azizur Rahman Khan is the chief of the company. Narayanganj MP Shamim Osman owns the ZN Corporation. MP and former general secretary of Swechhasebok League Pankaj Debnath is the managing director of Bihanga Paribahan. Jubo League general secretary Mainul Hasan Khan owns Chalan Paribahan. Besides, at least another 30 leaders of AL’s associate bodies and councillors owns transport companies.

Every day, each of the buses that run inside Dhaka and inter-district pay Tk 70 as extortion. Of that, Tk 40 go to owners’ association and Tk 30 to workers’ association. Shahjahan Khan is the executive president of Bangladesh Sarak Paribahan Sramik Federation, the apex body of transport workers of Bangladesh. Jatiya Party secretary general Mashiur Rahman Ranga is the president of Bangladesh Sarak Paribahan Samity, the apex body of transport owners of the country, while AL leader Khandaker Enayet Ullah is its secretary general.

Speaking about this to Prothom Alo, Shahjahan Khan said, there is an allegation of huge extortion in the name of GP but the amount of extortion in the name of owners and workers organisations is not big. They have adopted a systematic way to collect the money required to run the organisation. The amount should be small and rational. He also claimed the extortion will be stopped in the near future.

Bangladesh Passengers Welfare Association secretary general Mozammel Haque Chowdhury told Prothom Alo that the disorder in fixing the fare would be resolved if the extortion is stopped. The government can, at least, do this during the coronavirus situation. At the same time, instead raising the fare, the government could decrease the price of fuel. The amount the government would increase now will never be decreased, he added.

* The report has been rewritten in English by Shameem Reza