Dhaka city residents must shoulder yet another cost of living increase from October 1, as a transportation price hike comes into effect, adding to the burden of increased gas, power, water and sewerage prices announced earlier this month.
For commuters, the fear is that the fare hike, however modest, will help operators, who have grown accustomed to overcharging passengers, justify large fare increases.
The daily commute is the latest casualty to the inflationary surge set off by the government upping power and energy prices. Increased utilities prices have already pushed up rent and other living costs for many residents of the city.
Dhaka commuters are already charged far more than government-fixed fares and fear that hiking the official rate will send actual prices charged by operators on a dizzying upward spiral.
The government’s fare hike announcement on Thursday is meant for Compressed Natural Gas (CNG)-run vehicles and comes in response to CNG-run vehicle operators’ demands for an official fare increase.
According to vehicle owners, most public transport vehicles – buses, mini-buses, human hauliers, autorickshaws and taxis – are powered by CNG.
Operators told the Dhaka Tribune before the September 1 natural gas price hike, that increases in fuel costs would inevitably result in increased transportation prices.
Vehicle operators yesterday expressed satisfaction with the fare hike announcement, but residents and commuters said they feared actual transport prices would rise significantly.
Many were troubled by the unabated increases to the cost of living in the city. Commuters allege that public transport staff had begun charging higher fares than the government rate long before Thursday’s announcement.
Although they are the most widely used modes of transportation in Dhaka, passengers said the BRTA and the DMP had failed to enforce the government-fixed bus and minibus fare rates.
Dhaka residents pay more than double what they are supposed to be charged according to the fare chart set by the government, the Dhaka Tribune has found. Some operators charge three or four times the BRTA rate.
According to the current BRTA fare chart, updated in November 2011, the fare in the city was previously Tk1.6 per kilometre, while the fare coming into effect next month is Tk1.7 per kilometre. Even overcharging by a small amount adds up over a month or year.
The Dhaka Tribune has found that a commuter will typically pay Tk4 more than the government fare on return trips on the Pallabi to Gulistan route. That adds up to overpaying by Tk80 every month, assuming that there are roughly 20 working days each month.
On Uttara to Gulistan round trips, commuters spend an extra Tk120 per month because of overcharging by bus operators.
It is estimated that CNG-run autorickshaw passengers on the same round trip pay an extra Tk226 per day.