Transporters raise fares by 20pc, decrease vehicles 50 per cent
Amraiz Khan Lahore
After an increase in petroleum prices twice a week by the government the Public Transport Owners Federation on Friday has decided to raise the fare by 20%.
Apart from that the federation has also decided to decrease the number of commuting vehicles by 50 percent on road, said an office-bearer of the federation.
It is worth mentioning here that the aftershocks of the POL products price increase have started hitting the masses.
The All Pakistan Public Transport Owners Federation on Friday decided to raise the transport fares by 20%. As it was not enough, the federation also decided to adopt a retrenchment policy by cutting down its staff as it would reduce the number of vehicles on roads by 50%.
The federation took the decision of 20% surge in public transport fares under de-regulate policy.
The transporters were of the view that they were reducing the number of vehicles and lying off staff in order to save on their expenses as public was unable to afford any more hike in the transport fare.
The new coalition government continued to test the patience of the already beleaguered masses as hours after increasing the electricity prices by Rs7.91, it increased the petrol and diesel prices by Rs30 per litre last night. Miftah Ismael dropped the bombshell in a press conference in which he tried to justify the government’s actions that would definitely lead to a tsunami of inflation and would make it hard for people to survive.
Though he was of the view that the decision was made after getting the go-ahead from the prime minister. The new price of petrol is Rs209.86 per litre, diesel Rs204.15 per litre, kerosene oil Rs181.94 per litre and light diesel Rs178.31 per litre.
The government announced a similar increase a week ago, inviting ire among the people who have already been finding it difficult to make both end meet. Miftah said that it was a “difficult decision that will erode the political capital” of the government.
On Thursday, the popular and cheap bus-sharing service, SWVL, announced that it would be “pausing” daily rides within Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad and Faisalabad from Friday (June 3) “in light of the global economic downturn”. On May 30, the company hinted at reducing its headcount by approximately 32 percent. Swvl’s big move came just days after Pakistan’s startup space, Airlift, announced that it was reducing headcount by 31 percent across all markets and limiting the number of categories on the platform.
Airlift, which began as a bus-hailing service, had also suspended operations during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The company has since changed their business models to focus on grocery delivery operations in Pakistani cities.
The transporters have increased travel fares from Lahore to different cities of the country following an increase in the prices of petroleum products by Rs200 to Rs300.
The fare of travel from Lahore to Rawalpindi has been increased from Rs1,850 to Rs2,000.
Similarly the fare of travel from Lahore to Faisalabad has been increased from Rs.950 to Rs.1050 and likewise from Lahore to Sargodha has been increased from Rs850 to Rs950.
