Subsidy raised to strengthen public transport
Irangika Range
COLOMBO: The Government has increased the subsidy from Rs.30 to Rs.50
per diesel litre to strengthen the public transport sector and reduce
the burden on the commuters.
Addressing a media briefing held in Colombo yesterday, Transport
Minister Dullas Alahapperuma said the Government would further discuss
with the Private Bus Owners Organisations and the passenger transport
authorities at provincial level to provide this subsidy to the private
transport sector aiming to decrease the private bus fare increase of 27
per cent to the SLTB bus fare increase of 17 per cent.
The National Transport Commission has already formulated a suitable
mechanism and it is expected to be launched within next three months as
a relief measure to commuters through providing a sufficient subsidy to
the private bus sector.
"There is no proper mechanism for providing a direct subsidy to the
private bus sector. The mechanism is underway and will be implemented on
the recommendation of a committee report headed by Secretary to the
Finance Ministry Dr.P.B. Jayasundara," he said.
There are no millionaires in the Private Bus sector and around 85 per
cent of those involved in the sector run their business facing a lots of
difficulties. "It is our responsibility to protect the private bus
sector while taking measures to strengthen the public transport sector,"
the Minister added.
He said that the bus fare revision is scheduled to be amended by July
1 each year considering the 12 indices under the national policy. The
fuel price hike as well as other circumstance in the annual revision
have been taken into account in this bus fare revision.
He said that President Mahinda Rajapaksa would discuss with the
Cabinet on how best to offset the burden on the economy following the
huge increase of fuel prices in the world market.
The CPC is incurring a loss amounting to Rs. 64 per one diesel litre
and the Government spends Rs. 34 in order to reduce the burdens of
commuters. The balance of Rs. 30 has to be borne by commuters due to
price increases in the world market.
All the previous regimes tried increasing the fares parallel to the
world price hike but we have taken a number of discussions for the
betterment of commuters and several solutions will be announced soon. |