“The bus and launch fares have been hiked unilaterally by the government, the transport owners and the workers’ leaders without considering the people’s interest.”

Mozammel Hoque Chowdhury, Secy gen of Jatri Kalyan Samity

The bus and launch fares are now up by as much as 28 percent and 43 percent respectively, in the first manifestation of the impact the Tk 15 hike in diesel and kerosene prices will have on the cost of living for the poor and the middle-class.

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The new bus and minibus rates, approved to appease the transport owners who have been on strike since Friday to protest the fuel price hike, come into effect today, according to the notice from the Road Transport and Highway Division yesterday.

But the bus operators who resumed normal service in the evening began to charge the new fares soon after the notice was issued around 7 pm.

The launch operators, who went on strike on Saturday noon seeking a doubling of the fares fixed in 2013, also resumed normal service from the evening with the latest tariff set by a government committee led by Delwar Hossain, member of planning and operations of the Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority.

“This is nothing but injustice to the passengers,” Mozammel Hoque Chowdhury, secretary-general of Bangladesh Jatri Kalyan Samity, told The Daily Star.

Under the new bus tariff, the fare — which does not include the tolls — for a trip from the capital’s Gabtali to Barishal through Faridpur would go up to Tk 555 from Tk 438.

Similarly, within the city, a bus trip from Mirpur Zoo to Notre Dame College that previously cost Tk 33 would set the passenger back by Tk 41.

The fares have been hiked unilaterally by the government, the transport owners and the workers’ leaders without considering the people’s interest, Chowdhury said.

Particularly unfair are the new launch fares, which were determined considering the operation cost of just a handful of luxurious launches, according to Chowdhury. “The expenses are not the same for most of the other launches.”

Besides, the majority of the launch journeys are upwards of 100 kilometres, so the passengers’ costs would effectively rise more than 35.3 percent.

Chowdhury demanded the government cancel the new fares and set logical and acceptable tariffs.

The new bus fares came after a meeting that went on for more than five hours yesterday between an 11-member government committee led by Bangladesh Road Transport Authority Chairman Nur Mohammad Mazumder, a good number of transport leaders, representatives from the energy division and the Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation.

At the meeting, the transport leaders proposed to raise the bus fares by as much as 44 percent, a bid that was shot down by the government officials.

This caused the transport leaders to step outside of the room several times and hold separate meetings among themselves.

Before a final decision was reached, the government officials, including Mazumder, were seen talking over the phone.

After the meeting, Mazumder said the bus operators pushed for a 47 percent hike in fares but the committee recommended a raise of about 27 percent considering both the people’s interest and the transport associations’ demands.

The new tariff would not be applicable on vehicles that run on CNG, petrol and octane, and for enforcement, the BRTA would be running mobile courts, he said.

The bus fare hike was necessary and overdue, said Khondaker Enayet Ullah, secretary-general of the Bangladesh Road Transport Owners Association.

Apart from the price of fuel, the other operational costs have gone up since May 2016, when the inter-district bus fares were last fixed, he said. The bus fares for Dhaka and Chattogram were last fixed in September 2015.

However, the associations of goods-carrying vehicle owners and workers said they will continue their ongoing strike until the government slashes the price of diesel, meaning the impasse created by the energy ministry’s decision on Wednesday continues.

The leaders of the associations said none from the government talked to them over the issue as of last night.

“We will continue our strike until the fuel price is cut down and the recent hike in tolls for two bridges is revoked,” said Tajul Islam, member secretary of Bangladesh Truck, Covered Van, Tank Lorry, Prime Mover Owners and Workers Coordination Council.

Mokbul Ahmed, president of the Bangladesh Covered-Van Truck Prime Mover Goods Transport Owners Association, another platform of owners of goods laden vehicles, said they would not call off the strike, which began on Friday as well, until the problem over fuel price hike is solved.



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