Fines, investigations fail to stop bus owners from hiking fares during Eid

Despite fines and warnings by the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority, transport companies are charging passengers extra fares.

The mobile court fined the Arambagh counter of Asia Aircon Transportation Tk2,000 on Thursday for charging an additional fare of Tk100 from the passengers. The same team of BRTA fined another transport company, Miami Aircon, the same amount.

Within a few hours of paying the fine, complaints of excess fares were again raised at both the counters. The truth of the matter was found by visiting the two counters this morning.

Asia Aircon staff at Arambagh asked for Tk400 for a ticket to Comilla which usually cost Tk300. When asked the reason for asking Tk100 more than the fixed fare, the counter staff said to either pay Tk400 or to leave.

When reminded about paying fine for asking for extra money, a person named Rabbani, who was behind the counter, said "On the way back, the bus remains empty, so we incur a loss. If the fare is slightly higher, the government collects fines, but they do not give us anything when we suffer a loss."

Another counter staff at Miami Aircon said the mobile court imposes a fine of Tk2,000-3,000. Whereas, if Tk100 extra can be collected from each passenger, the additional income per trip is about Tk4,000, he added.

According to the control room set up by the Road Transport and Highways Division at the office of BRTA, any complaints regarding excess fare are being handled by mobile courts.

If the complaint is found to be true, the concerned counter is fined. However, since the amount of fine is low, people concerned think this overcharging is not stopping.

BRTA officials also said the number of complaints from passengers is also very low.

Additional fare is being collected from the bus passengers at every long distance terminal of the capital including Mohakhali, Gabtoli, Syedabad, Gulistan.

Only Ena Transport is collecting fixed fare of Tk320 from Mohakhali to Mymensingh. Several buses including Soukhin, Alam Asia, Burma, Imam are charging Tk500-600 on the same route.

Non-AC bus fare from Sayedabad to Barisal is Tk500-550 during normal hours. On Thursday, most of the buses including Hanif, Shyamoli, Sakura, BMF, Golden Line collected Tk700-800 fare.

Even today, the counters collected rent up to Tk700. Usual fare of Tk540 from Sayedabad to Noakhali was hiked to Tk650 by Ekushey Express Transport.

Mozammel Haque Chowdhury, Secretary General of Bangladesh Passenger Welfare Association, believes that additional fare collection cannot be stopped by imposing fines under existing laws.

He said, if an additional fare of Tk400 per seat can be collected, the additional income per trip is Tk20,000. The more trips the company bus makes, the more this income will increase. And under the existing law, fines from Tk2,000 to a maximum of Tk10,000 can be imposed due to excessive fare. It will not be possible to stop the collection of additional fare with this fine, he added.