Travelling a costly affair

Travelling, be it surface or air, is going to be a costly affair.
No sooner the government hiked the public transport fare by nine per cent, the Airlines Operators Association of Nepal (AOAN) has also urged the government to hike airfare.
Though the transport entrepreneurs have been lobbying hard for the transport fare hike by 15 per cent, Minister for Labour and Transport Management Mohamed Aftab Alam approved the nine per cent hike today.
However, the Federation of Nepalese National Transport Entrepreneurs (FNNTE) that has been lobbying for at least 15 per cent fare hike, has not officially accepted the new rate, though ministry claims of scientific method for fare hike.
"We have applied scientific method to hike transport fare," Alam said, adding that all the factors associated with transportation are given reasonable weight in setting the new fare. The government has set eight parameters including fuel, spare parts and tax in calculating the new fare.
According to the new rate, people traveling in public vehicles have to pay at least Rs 10.90.Earlier on April 5, 2010, the government had fixed minimum of Rs 10 as the public transport fare but the public transport used to collect up to Rs 12 as minimum fare, which is expected to be further increased by the transporters after today's decision.
However, Alam said that the Department of Transport Management (DoTM) will monitor the fare from tomorrow and the public transportation means not abiding by the rule will be punished on spot.
Meanwhile, the consumer groups termed the fare hike -- that is in favour of the transporters -- anti-public. "It will increase burden to people already suffering from price hike of consumer goods due to high transportation cost," said Jajannath Mishra, secretary of Consumer Rights Protection Forum (CRPF).
The hike in transportation fare will also fuel the market prices of the goods and services, despite government's target of containing the inflation at seven per cent.
Similarly, the Airlines Operators Association of Nepal (AOAN) has also today urged the government to revise the airfare upward. "The airfare used to be revised in every two years, has not been revised for last five years," Sri Kanta Baral, scretary of AOAN said, adding that the Air Turbine Fuel (ATF), insurance, lease tax, VAT, renewal fee have been increased in the last five year, except the airfare.
On Februay 13, it will be five years that the airlines operators havenot revised their fare. The government has also agreed and formed a committee to revise the airfare on November 3, 2010, according to the AOAN.
The committee has submitted the report to the Ministry of Tourism and Civil Aviation one month ago, suggesting the the government to revise the airfare upward soon.