The United Transport Trade Union Alliance has raised concerns over the government’s move to introduce card payments for bus fares, citing unfair bank commissions.
The pilot project introducing card payments for bus fares was launched at the Makumbura Multimodal Centre yesterday.
Commenting on the initiative, the United Transport Trade Union Alliance President, Sampath Ranasinghe, said that during discussions with the Transport Ministry on the project, it was assured that bank commission would remain under 1%.
He said, however, it has now come to notice that the banks were charging card transaction commissions between 1.3 to 1.8%, in violation of what is approved by the government.
“Bus owners are not ready to provide their hard-earned income as commissions to banks. We request that banks support us. It is unfair for banks to earn from our income. Buses are not here to strengthen the banking sector. We request banks to support us with low commissions,” he added. (Newswire)