Health Minister Keheliya Rambukwella said the law on transporting passengers according to the number of seats will be removed from today (06) and the Transport Minister will be informed of this decision in writing.

In view of the rapid spread of Covid-19 pandemic, the Director General of Health Services imposed a law to limit passengers to the number of bus seats. This resulted in a 20 per cent increase in bus fares.

However, at the end of the pandemic, only 10 per cent of the increased percentage was reduced.

Today, the said law is not in force and the National Transport Commission (NTC) has requested the Director General of Health Services on many occasions to reduce the 10 per cent increase.

Transport Minister Bandula Gunawardana has told Health Minister Rambukwella yesterday that the price of diesel has decreased by 15 rupees recently and by 10 rupees earlier.

In total, this amount is a 3.8 per cent of a reduction and in order to reduce bus fares, there should be a decrease of at least 4 per cent.

Therefore, the Transport Minister has further said that there is a possibility of reducing bus fares if the Health Ministry withdraws the law on limiting passengers to the number of bus seats.

If the total percentage of 13.8 is reduced in this manner, the current minimum bus fare of 34 rupees can be reduced by five rupees and other fares will also be reduced similarly, the NTC said.

The NTC said steps would be taken to provide the concession of the bus fare reduction to the passengers as soon as it was officially notified that the law has been removed.

(Aruna)