The Lanka Private Bus Owners’ Association (LPBOA) says that bus fares will not be revised although the price of diesel has been reduced by Rs. 15.
Joining a press briefing today (May 01), the President of the association Gamunu Wijeratne stressed that the transport minister has not taken any measures in order to provide quality public transport services.
“Although the minister held the position all the time in the recent past, he did not work to provide a quality public transport service. At present the people have to suffer the consequences of that.”
He also claimed that in particular, they are practically unable to provide the benefit for the people even if diesel has been reduced by Rs. 15.
“The reason is that by reducing the fare by one or two rupees, the people will not receive that benefit practically. Even we don’t get it,” he alleged.
Commenting further, Wijeratne pointed out that the union has decided to have a certain system which allows people to pay the fare with a debit card on an electronic system, with or without the conductor, where they can definitely provide this relief to the people.
“If the government provides that project tomorrow, we can reduce the bus fare tomorrow. Otherwise, there is absolutely no way we can reduce this bus fare, since people will not receive this relief in practice in this manner,” he stressed.
