Vasyl Hubal believes that increase of tariffs for transportation must be a compromise

On Tuesday, November 18, the head of the Transcarpathian Regional State Administration Vasyl Hubal had a "wide" meeting to discuss issues of tariffs for passenger transportation.

It was attended by experts from the relevant RSA services, representatives of local authorities of the region, as well as carriers and employees of regulatory bodies.

The issue of passenger services and their prices is very important for the citizens of the region, at the same time, it is a difficult social and economic situation in the country, therefore, in order to act reasonably, it was decided to examine the situation thoroughly and taking into account the views of various parties and the public.

Carriers insist on increase in tariffs, the regional government believes that the increase must be a compromise – the tariff should be reviewed only having taken into account the objective reasons and the problems that exist in the area.

According to the Department of Economic Development and Trade of the Transcarpathian Regional State Administration, the analysis of the materials provided by the carriers in November 2014 showed that the most significant factors contributing to a higher level of tariffs is an understatement of passenger turnout and a high level of profitability – 15%.  Lack of proper accounting of passenger traffic leads to a distortion of economic performance of carriers. Hence, the idea to significantly raise the tariff – from 0.32 UAH per passenger-kilometer with VAT, to, according to some proposals, 0.48 UAH – is believed to be unsubstantiated. Also, the Department emphasized that it is very important to ensure a balance between effective demand for passenger bus transportation services and the cost of their provision. The managers note: the tariff structure includes a high rate of station fee – 27%. It is proposed to adjust this rate in order to determine the optimal fare.

Carriers, in turn, argue that fuel, as well as components have become more expensive, and the problem of compensation for the cost of transportation of privileged citizens remains. Also they complain about bad roads, because of which rolling stock often needs repair. And about an imperfect network of routes – many of them are too unprofitable. Carriers are also concerned about the illegal "colleagues".

Transcarpathian Regional Council Chairman Volodymyr Chubirko noted that the passenger transportation industry in the region is in a complete mess and informed that the office of the Regional Council had received more than one hundred complaints that buses would not go to end stations, as they should. In his view, it is necessary to urgently do a serious analysis of routes and then optimize them.

After a long and rather emotional debate, during which all parties had their say, the head of the region Vasyl Hubal said that regional authorities are changing the standards of work in this area – from now on, they will act on the principle of dialogue and transparency:

He said: the RSA is ready to hold the meeting of the commission to determine tariffs for passenger transportation.

Also the head of the RSA said that in addition to holding competitions on the basis of openness and maximum transparency, the regional authorities would initiate an appeal to the central authorities requesting to review the terms of competitions.