5.63% rise in public transport fares from Nov 1

KATHMANDU, Oct 17: Commuters will have to start shelling out more if they take public transport from November 1 onwards as the government has finally decided to allow public transport fares to go up. A meeting between transport entrepreneurs and the Department of Transport Management (DoTM) on Wednesday evening agreed to hike fares by 5.63 percent, effective from November 1.

“The revised transport fare will be effective on all public vehicles, including buses, mini-buses, micro-buses and tempos,” Kashi Raj Dahal, the director general of DoTM told Republica. He said DoTM also increased taxi fares by 6.58 percent while loaded-vehicles -- like lorries and trucks -- can charge 5.27 percent more.

The DoTM announcement comes on the back of approval for the revision from the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport (MoPIT) three weeks ago. The ministry had suggested that the department increase the fares, effective from October 17, basing itself on the Scientific Fare Determination Mechanism (SFDM) set by the government.

SFDM has a provision that allows the government to revise public transport fares once a year, based on fuel price factors as well as non-fuel factors like inflation, bank interest rates, and prices of accessories and spare parts, among others.

Fare has to be calculated on the basis of 35 percent contribution of fuel factors and 65 percent from non-fuel factors.

DoTM officials said that this years´ revision in transport fares was made primarily basing on factors such as increment in fuel prices over the year and a rise in the prices of accessories and spare parts.

Mukti KC, director at DoTM, said the revision in fare has been made effective after Tihar, as a revision amid festivities would be an impractical decision.

Transport entrepreneurs, who had been demanding an almost 10 percent rise in fares, have also welcomed the decision.

“As the percentage of increment is based on SFDM, we support it,” Dol Nath Khanal, senior vice-president of the Federation of Nepalese National Transport Entrepreneurs (FNNTE), told Republica.

On the other hand, organizations dealing with consumers´ right have said the decision was against the aspirations of consumers and have condemned it.

“The government has taken an anti-consumer decision at a time when consumers are already facing hard times in buying different other products,” an official at the Forum for Protection of Consumer Rights (FPCR) said.

Source: Republica