The 37th meeting of Central Monitoring Committee (CMC) held on Thursday directed MoPIT to reduce public transportation in coordination with Ministry of Commerce and Supplies (MoCS) in line with falling petroleum prices.The meeting also directed MoPIT to introduce a provision to revise public transportation fare in line with adjustment made in price of petroleum products by Nepal Oil Corporation.
The direction has come at a time when the government has been failing to reduce public transport fare even though price of diesel has come down by more than 28 percent over the past year.
Price of diesel fell by Rs 2 per liter on Tuesday only. Diesel is cheaper by Rs 23 per liter, compared to September last year. Diesel, which was retailed at Rs 105 per liter in September last year, is now available at Rs 82 per liter.
Scientific Fare Determination Mechanism clearly states that transportation fare has to be revised if price of diesel goes up or falls by a minimum of Rs 5 per liter. Based on the provision, the government should have reduced transportation fare by at least four times during the period. However, the government reduced public transportation fare by a nominal 2.03 percent during the yearlong period.
Department of Transport Management (DoTM), which is responsible for adjust transportation fare, is in no mood to reduce transportation fare. Chandra Man Shrestha, director general of DoTM, had told Republica on Wednesday that transportation fare cannot be reduced as the diesel price has not changed by Rs 5 per liter since the last adjustment.
But the fact is, price of diesel has come down by Rs 11 per liter since February 9 when the government reduced public transportation fare. At that time, diesel was being retailed at Rs 93 per liter.
The CMC meeting has also directed responsible government bodies to ensure effective supply of food commodities and increase monitoring activities ahead of the festive season.
At the meeting, Chief Secretary Subedi also directed secretaries not to transfer officers and responsible people working on different government-prioritized projects whose work performance is above 80 percent.
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