Transport entrepreneurs demand 15% fare hike

KATHMANDU, March 18: Transport entrepreneurs have demanded that the government raise public transportation fare by at least 15 percent.

Saying that recent hike in price of petroleum products have increased financial burden on them, they have urged the government to revise transportation fare within a week.

“Prices of spare parts have increased over the past few years, but transportation fare has remained the same. The fresh hike in petroleum products further worsened the situation,” Dolnath Khanal, general secretary of Federation of Nepalese National Transport Entrepreneurs (FNNTE), told Republica. “Based on the inflation rate and the recent hike in petroleum products, the government should raise transportation fare by at least 15 percent.”

The government raised price of petrol by Rs 10 per liter and diesel by Rs 6 per liter on Friday.

As per the Scientific Fare Determination Mechanism, transportation fare has to be revised once a year based on fuel factors and non-fuel factors like inflation rate, bank interest rates, and prices of accessories and spare parts, among others.

New fare is calculated on the basis of 35 percent contribution from fuel factors and 65 percent from non-fuel factors.
The government had revised transportation fare by 9 percent in March last year.

Transport entrepreneurs have said they would not be able to provide service after a week if the government didn´t withdraw its decision to raise fuel prices. “If the government didn´t revise fare, we will be compelled to raise fare on our own,” said Yogendra Karmacharya, president of FNNTE. “We will notify the government about our decision on Tuesday.”
The Department of Transport Management (DoTM) -- the government body responsible for fixing transportation fares - is also in the mood to hike the fare if the decision to hike fuel prices is not rolled back.

“Transportation fare has to be revised soon. But the rate proposed by them is unscientific,” Mukti KC, director at DoTM, told Republica, adding “The actual rate will be calculated as per the provisions prescribed in by the Scientific Fare Determination Mechanism.”

As per the provisions, transportation fare has to be revised if fuel prices increased by more than 5 percent.

“We will revise the rate accordingly,” KC added.

Source: REPUBLICA