Kathmandu, November 3:

Minister wants fare slashed in line with fuel price-cut.

A meeting organised at the Ministry of Labour and Transport Management today to adjust the transportation fare between the government officials and transport entrepreneurs ended inconclusively.

“We could not reach to any conclusion. We will hold another meeting soon and come up with a concrete decision,” said Lekh Raj Bhatta, minister for Labour and Transport Management.

During the meeting Bhatta and the other government officials urged the transport entrepreneurs to reduce the transport fares on par with the percentage of fuel prices decreased recently in the international market.

Minister Bhatta said that though the transport entrepreneurs have agreed adjusting the fare, they first wanted the government to implement the past agreements. “They wanted stipend for providing 45 per cent student discount and using logo on student identity cards to check fake ones,” he said.

He said they have forwarded a letter to the Finance Ministry, urging it to make the arrangements as demanded by the entrepreneurs.

However, the entrepreneurs remained firm on their stance of developing a scientific fare fixation system to ensure that fuel prices fluctuation in the international market does not affect the transport rate in the country.

President of Federation of Nepali National Transport Entrepreneurs Dinesh Bhandari said that the stakeholders in the meeting agreed to decide on all the aspects of the transport sector in next meeting.

Discussions will be held with the representatives of various concerned ministries, including the Finance Ministry, he said.

“We have not received anything from the government for providing student discount.”

The meeting, among others, discussed on the increasing tendency of victims demanding large

sum of money as compensation during road accidents, insurance procedure, mechanism to check the fake identity cards. “I will call the next meeting after returning from India visit. I have asked them to come up with their proposal on ways to slash the fares, Bhatta said.