DA: Minibus fares will be raised in order to increase party funds

The minibus fares will be raised with the aim of fulfilling some of the politicians’ goal of increasing parties’ funds, considers the party “Democratia Acasa” (DA). According to the party, the minibus route administrators have enormous earnings, while Mayor General Dorin Chirtoaca does not make effort to find solutions to the problems related to public transport, Info-Prim Neo reports. In a news conference on Wednesday, members of the party said it seems as if the mayor is lobbying for increasing the minibus fares because one of the Liberal councilors on the Chisinau Council owns five minibus routes that bring revenues to the party. Another reason for raising the fares is the fact that he does not manage to repay the loans of millions of lei taken out by the municipality in time. According to the members of DA, Dorin Chirtoaca may accept a rise from 3 to 4 lei only so that the people do not say that the fare is too high. The party “Democratia Acasa” set up a special commission that is preparing a project to optimize passenger transportation. The project will be presented to the local councilors when it is ready. Until then, members of the party will protest in front of the City Hall. According to the calculations of the DA team, if the minibus route owners were taxed appropriately, the municipality would solve the problems concerning the purchase of trolleybuses and buses. The party’s deputy chairman Andrei Donica said there are about 1,800 minibuses in the municipality of Chisinau and each of them brings 1,500 lei daily. According to him, 400 lei is paid for fuel, while the profit of 1,100 lei is divided between the driver and the route owner. If the incomes from the minibus business were taxed, the City Hall would earn over 291,000 lei daily. This money can be used to buy 70 trolleybuses or buses annually. The party demands regulating the passenger transportation activity by law and maintaining the minibus fare at the level of 3 lei or even considering reducing it now that the fuel prices decreased. It also said that the reequipped minibuses should not be allowed to transport passengers, the drivers must be obliged to obey the traffic rules, while the incomes earned by them should be taxed correctly.