STAR, 16 June 2013
KUALA LUMPUR: The fare for express buses should just have a surcharge of not more than 10% during the Hari Raya season and tickets should be up for sale from July 1, said Land Public Transport Commission (SPAD).
Its chief executive officer Mohd Nur Kamal said the usual 10% surcharge would not be exclusive to additional buses sourced out by bus operators but also applicable to the existing fleet as well.
He was responding to Pan Malaysian Bus Operators Association's (PMBOA) request seeking a 30% increase in bus fares and its reluctance to sell advance tickets for July and August until they received the Government's confirmation over the rate hike.
He chided the association for taking advantage of the Hari Raya season “to put a gun to our head with public interest at ransom, forcing us to decide on the fare review in a matter of weeks”.
“I think this seemed somewhat orchestrated to create panic among the public and put pressure on us,” he said in an interview.
He said PMBOA had raised the issue of the rate increase via a letter dated May 28 to SPAD.
Mohd Nur said SPAD spoke to several industry players and they were not on board with the increase as not all industry players were members of PMBOA.
“In fact, they are ready to sell the tickets as normal. We also found out that there was communication in the form of phone calls and text messages from certain parties to these other companies not to sell the tickets,” he said.
“This is against the Competition Act 2010 that came into force early last year. This has become a major problem and we are in communication with Malaysia Competition Commission (MyCC) to make a report and get to the bottom of this.
“If this is going to be the first landmark case so be it. SPAD is not here to make sure some companies maintain their profit level but we are here to protect public interest,” he said.
Mohd Nur said SPAD had been cooperative in engaging with the industry for improvement.
“We are actually in the midst of reviewing all land public transport operations that include light rail transit, stage buses, taxis and chartered vehicles in the aspects of efficiency, asset utilisation, productivity, competition as well as fares, but it's not a simple process that can be decided in a matter of weeks.” he said.
