KUCHING: The Commercial Vehicle Licensing Board (CVLB) is still considering the application by public and school bus operators in Sarawak to raise their fares, said its deputy chairman Datuk Peter Minos.
He said CVLB was still in the process of obtaining feedback from the people if the proposed fare hike was affordable or otherwise.
“We need to consider all factors before making any decision because it is a vital issue. We also need to take into consideration the views of the people and bus associations,” he told Bernama here yesterday.
Last November, the Sarawak Bus Transport Companies Association (SBTCA) submitted an application to CVLB to raise the fares of public buses to enable these bus companies to continue their operation.
SBTCA chairman Lau Khing Seng said public bus companies in the state were likely to be forced to stop their services on routes that were unprofitable due to rising operation costs following the price hike of fuel, workers’ salary, spare parts, tyres and batteries.
He said the current fares had not been increased since 2009 but fuel prices had risen by 18 percent since then while the implementation of the minimum wage policy by the government since this year caused hiring costs to accelerate by as much as 110 per cent.
As such, SBTCA suggested a fare hike of 16 sen for the first three-kilometre journey for air-conditioned buses and 20 sen for every kilometre consecutively.
Meanwhile, school bus operators in the state also submitted an application to raise the fares to 40 sen for every kilometre to be at par with those in the peninsula last month.
Sarawak School Bus Associations Union president Sawoi Anee said the bus operators in the state did not have any choice but to raise their fares following the price hike in fuel, spare parts and tyres.
He was concerned that the public and school bus services would be affected if the operators faced losses due to decreasing income as a result of rising operation costs. — Bernama