A joint meeting of the officials of Department of Transport Management (DoTM), representatives from Federation of Nepalese National Transport Entrepreneurs (FNNTE) and consumer rights groups on Tuesday decided to fix new fares for public vehicles.[break]
“We have written a note of dissent on the understanding to raise the transport fares as it would contradict the Supreme Court (SC) verdict and the directive from the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA),” said Jaganath Mistra, a representative of the Consumers Rights Forum.
The SC on November 7, 2006 had ordered the government not to hike transport fares unscientifically. The CIAA had also issued a directive on December 1, 2010 asking the government not to increase fares without studying how fares are fixed in SAARC countries.
Krishna Dawadi, acting director general of DoTM told Republica that DoTM officials and transport entrepreneurs reached an understanding at the meeting to jack up transport fares on the basis of cost increment of non-fuel factors. “Price rise in non-fuel factors of transport cost will be fixed on Wednesday considering bank interest rate and rise in the price of other non-fuel factors over the years as calculated by Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) before reaching a decision,” Dawadi said.
As per the scientific price setting mechanism, fares will be determined allocating weightage of 35 percent and 65 percent for fuel and non-fuel items respectively. Non-fuel items include bank interests for vehicle loan, spare parts, staff salary, administrative costs, and maintenance, among others.
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