The law bans the transportation of passengers without ticket, but does not entitle an institution to fight this phenomenon, the head of the Transport Ministry’s Land Transport Division Iulian Postica has told Info-Prim Neo. On the other hand, the carriers, even the unauthorized ones, admit that they convey passengers without ticket, but argue that only this way can they continue work as the fares cover only a part of the costs they incur. “The current system for combating violations, defined in the Code of Administrative Offenses, is practically inefficient. The traffic police cannot take all the measures needed to improve the situation,” said Iulian Postica. A driver working on the Chisinau-Anenii Noi route said at most 200 lei is collected the days when there are many passengers. “The number of passengers is recorded in a special document. We have by 15-20 passengers on a route. There are two or three routes a day. But there are days when we have only 4-5 passengers and we thus take passengers on the way,” said the driver. According to the executive director of the National Carriers’ Union Eugen Datsko, the fares haven’t been raised since 2009 and the carriers sustained losses of about 60 million lei. “We demand that the fares be increased as the price of fuel represents more than a half of the cost price. We understand that a sudden rise in fares will lead to a decrease in the number of passengers. The people do not have enough money to pay for the real fares. Therefore, they should be increased by 10% in the first half of the year and by another 10% in the second half. Unfortunately, the Transport Ministry did not fulfill these demands and the legislation wasn’t adjusted to the created situation,” Eugen Datsko stated for Info-Prim Neo. The Ministry of Transport and Road Infrastructure asked the Institute of Economy, Finance and Statistics of the Academy of Sciences to work out a new methodology for calculating fares. But nothing has been done yet. “Additional financial resources are needed to devise the strategy, but we do not have this money. I don’t know if money will be allocated from the Government’s reserve fund. It may take a year or more to work out that methodology,” said Iulian Postica. The Ministry suggested creating the National Road Authority that will substitute the National Motor Transport Agency. The latter is to be liquidated and the authority that will replace it will be self-administered. It will earn money from the payments made for the authorizations and certificates issued by it. The authority will also perform supervision and inspection activities.