The Fare Review Committee has recommended the government to hike the fares of public transport, including buses, minibuses and taxis, operating throughout the country by 25 to 28 percent following the rise in prices of petroleum products.
Monday’s meeting of Public Transport Fare Review and Recommendation Committee, headed by Director General of Department of Transport Management (DoTM), made the recommendation.
Representatives of various transport federations and consumer forums had also participated in the meeting.
The Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) on Friday announced increase in the fuel price according to which price of diesel has been fixed at Rs 55 per litre—a hike of Rs 7, price of kerosene has been fixed at 46 per litre—a hike of Rs 6 while retail price of petrol has gone up by one rupee per litre.
The Kathmandu Post daily quoted Yogendra Nath Karmacharya, president of National Transport Entrepreneurs Federation Nepal as saying that the new fares would come into effect soon after Minister of State for Labor and Transport Management, Rabindra Khanal, endorses it.
Once the decision is enforced, fares of public vehicles operating on long routes will go up by 25 percent and fares of vehicles operating on medium and short routes will increase by 28 percent.
The government has determined long routes as distances of over 250 kilometers, medium routes between 100 to 250 kms and short route as distances between 25 to 100 km.
As per the recommendation, fares of vehicles operating on distance of 0-5 kilometers should not exceed Rs 9. Similarly, fares of vehicles plying on distance between 5-10 kilometers, 10-15 kilometers, 15-20 kilometers and 20-25 kilometers should not exceed Rs 10, Rs 12, Rs 14 and Rs 15, respectively.
Similarly, fares of metered taxi have will also increase by around 16 percent. “Although the ‘initial money drop’ on meter taxis has been fixed at Rs 8 as before, the-per-200 meter-fare has been increased from Rs 3 to Rs 3.50,” the source said.
The government had earlier increased the prices of public transport on Jan 12, 2004.
Meanwhile a public interest litigation (PIL) was filed in the Supreme Court on Monday challenging the government’s recent decision to authorise private sector in fixing price of petroleum products.
The NOC allowed private dealers to fix the price of petroleum products sold from outlets.
Lawyers Jyoti Baniya and Anuttam Uprety filed the petition on behalf of the Consumer Protection Forum.
They also sought the apex court order to the authorities to make public the agreement signed between the Indian Oil Corporation and the Nepal Oil Corporation and to maintain transparency while taking decision on the issue.