The Bangladesh Jatri Kalyan Samity, a passenger welfare organization, on Sunday demanded a reduction in bus and other public transport fares in line with recently decreased fuel prices.
They alleged that although the price of fuel has been reduced multiple times during the tenure of the interim government, there has been no corresponding decrease in bus fares.
The organization’s chairman, Dr Muhammad Zakaria, and Secretary General Md Mozammel Hoque Chowdhury voiced this demand in a joint statement sent to the media.
They said that fuel prices in the country are dropping every month, sometimes by Tk1, sometimes by Tk3, following global market trends.
However, there is reluctance when it comes to reducing bus fares, they added.
As a result, the general public is being deprived of the benefits of the fuel price cuts, the statement said.
The statement added that transport owners are quick to raise fares when fuel prices go up, but when prices decrease, they make various excuses to avoid lowering fares.
This has led to a significant gap between the government-set fares and the fares actually being charged, they said.
The organization claimed that since there is no passenger representation in the government-formed fare-fixing committee, passengers remain unaware of the process.
They, therefore, called for the inclusion of representatives from the Bangladesh Jatri Kalyan Samity in the fare determination committee alongside transport owners and workers’ associations.
They also demanded that the full list of fare hikes and reductions for buses and other public transport be shared with them, in addition to transport owner and worker organizations, in the interest of passenger transparency.