RAWALPINDI: The Punjab Transport Authority (PTA) on Sunday issued a notification to reduce public transport fares by up to Re1 per kilometre.

The government announced to reduce the price of petrol by Rs7.99 per litre and diesel by Rs5.62 per liter from February 1. However, the transport authority cut the fares only by up to Re1.

As per the notification, the fare of inter-city public transport has been reduced by Rs0.79 per km for non-air conditioned vehicles and for intra-city routes by Re1 per kilometre.

Secretary Regional Transport Authority (RTA) Awais Manzoor Tarrar told Dawn that the new fares had been implemented from Sunday.

He said from December to January, the fares were brought down from Rs15 per kilometre to Rs11 per km. He said the fares had been brought down in accordance with the percentage of the reduction in the oil prices.

However, the commuters demanded the government further bring down the fares.

“This reduction in petrol price will not give any benefit to the commuters as the transporters are already charging high fares,” said Mohammad Ilyas, a commuter.

Rehan Ahmed said during the last two months the price of petrol was reduced from Rs100 to Rs70 per litre but the government brought down the fares by only Rs3.

Published in Dawn, February 2nd, 2015

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