The communications ministry at a meeting with transport owners association Thursday gave a directive barring them from increasing bus fares on the occasion of Eid.

The ministry has also decided to deploy mobile teams to monitor the bus fares during Eid rush.

Most of the transport companies, who usually start selling tickets in advance 15 to 16 days ahead of Eid, have not begun the sale until yesterday to protest the directive, said some transport operators.

They explained they sell tickets at a discount rate during the off-season and withdraw the reduction ahead of Eid and charge the actual price fixed by the government.

As there is a rush of outgoing passengers before the Eid, buses to the capital hardly get passengers, causing huge financial loss, they argued.

"It's a global practice that travellers get discount in the off-season and have to pay more during the peak season. But here the government has made a decision without considering its impact on the passengers," said a leader of Bangladesh Bus-truck Owners Association, asking not to be named.

If the decision is not withdrawn, very few will be able to buy tickets from the counters and most will be forced to pay a much higher price for tickets on the black market, he added.

He said transport owners are forced to pay huge amount of money to law enforcers and different toll collecting organisations. But the government does not take any action to stop extortion, forcing them to bear high transport operating cost.

BNP lawmaker GM Seraj, president of Bangladesh Bus-truck Owners Association, alleged at the Thursday meeting that he runs 48 buses and his employees have to pay at least Tk 1.5 lakh a month as toll to police.

"If we have to obey the ministry's directive, bus owners will reduce number of trips that will cause more suffering to the passengers," Seraj, also owner of SR Travel operating in the north Bengal, told The Daily Star yesterday.

The SR Travel started selling Eid tickets yesterday. But Diganta Paribahan, Hanif Enterprises, Eagle Paribahan, Shoukhin Paribahan and some other companies on Dhaka-Khulna and National, Modern, NP Elegance and some other companies on Dhaka-Rajshahi routes have refrained from selling tickets.

Their salespersons told The Daily Star that they will start selling tickets from November 5 but the fares are yet to be fixed.

Some small transport companies are cashing in on the situation, selling tickets at premium rates.

A company of Dhaka-Chuadanga-Darshana route has upped the price of each ticket to Tk 250 from Tk 200.

"Our tickets sold out in one day, as some of the big companies refrain from sale," said an employee of the company.

When asked about premium price it charged despite the ministry's decision, he said if the association decides to sell tickets at a lower price, the company will return the additional money.

Meantime, launch owners at another meeting Sunday did not accept the shipping ministry's proposal not to increase fares before Eid. They said capital-bound launches get least number of passengers before Eid that forces them to charge extra.

However, they admitted most of the launches take more passengers than their capacity before Eid which is very difficult to avoid.