Bangladesh Jatri Kalyan Samity on Thursday demanded withdrawal of recently increased toll and tax on the country’s water routes.
The consumers’ rights body in a media statement protested the hike saying that the entrance fee and other services charges have been increased in a sudden move without taking any opinion from general travellers.
General Secretary of the rights body Md Mozammel Hoque Chowdhury in the statement read that there is a chaos going on in the country’s river ports, including the main river port Sadarghat in Dhaka, in the name of collecting toll, tax and other service charges.
Besides, there is an allegation that the collected toll and taxes were being misappropriated in most of the cases.
The prevailing scenario is a clear violation of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s direction of assuring services to commuters.
The rights body also said a digital solution of collecting toll, tax and other services could check the irregularities, corruption and mismanagement. Besides, it could help the authorities to raise more money without increasing the toll and tax.
He, however, urged the authorities concerned to withdraw the increased toll and other service charges immediately.
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