EconomyOnline – Mehdi Beyk; The representative of the people of Ahvaz in the parliament, referring to the problems that the country is facing in the discussion of public transportation development, said: in the discussion of upstream documents, there are appropriate laws for the development of the country’s public transportation fleet. Article 5 of the Government Financial Regulations, which specifies the share of the executive branch in the payment of 50% of the assistance for the development of rail transport, and Article 6, which sets out duties in this regard for municipalities, are among these upstream laws, which of course fulfill these duties properly. Has not been. In addition, the legislator has considered the possibility of financing and assistance from the central bank. In the circumstances that this law has been approved since 1983, neither in Tehran nor in other metropolises have these duties been performed. For example, in the discussion of the public transport fleet, half of Tehran’s needs have been silenced.
Yousefi said that the horizons set out in the upstream documents in the field of public transport fleet development had not been achieved. “For example, in the field of bus purchases for municipalities, the government was previously required to pay 82.5% of the purchase price of a bus,” That is, if a bus cost 100 million tomans, 82 million and 500 thousand tomans would be paid by the government and 17 million and 500 thousand tomans by the applicant municipality. Currently, the price of buses fluctuates from 3 billion tomans to 5 billion tomans. But with rising prices, the government has not done its job for 10 years.
He added: “For example, in Tehran, 1,200 private buses belong to the municipality of Tehran and more than 4,300 units belong to the private sector.” The point that has been overlooked is that the 10 years that the private sector has been committed to service are coming to an end. If tomorrow the private sector activists decide to leave the transport fleet of Tehran and the metropolises, the country will face a serious crisis in the field of public transportation.
Wrong approaches that cause problems
Yousefi in response to the question whether the problems in the field of transportation in the country were only due to the lack of allocation of resources by the government? He said: “I think the main issue is related to the kind of view that exists regarding the use of the capacities of public non-governmental institutions such as municipalities.” If solving urban problems and civil rights issues were among the government’s priorities, this liquidity could be secured by the optimal management of resources or the use of new investments such as stock exchanges. If public transport is not developed, this pulse will be sent to people who can use private cars. The government pays thousands of billions of tomans in fuel subsidies every year, while the development of public transportation reimburses a significant portion of these billions.
A member of the presidium of the urban management faction of the parliament said: there is no problem in the country in terms of law. Last year, 4,000 billion tomans were expected to be collected from driving offenses. According to Article 23 of this 4,000 billion tomans, 60 percent will go to the city and place where the fine was issued, and 60 percent will be distributed among the Ministry of Roads, municipalities and villages. Of the remaining 40 percent, 15 percent goes to the police, 5 percent to education and propaganda, and 20 percent to the ransom fund. Of the amount that is determined as the share of the Ministry of Roads and Municipalities, 70% is the share of municipalities and 30% is the share of rural areas.
Yousefi pointed out that these fines were received in cash from the people but were not used for the development of transportation. He said that the number that should have been allocated to the Ministry of Roads and Municipalities for the modernization of public transportation was 1,100 billion. It is Tomans and the same amount should have belonged to the municipalities. Of this amount of 1100 billion tomans for the development of public transportation, only 90 billion tomans has been allocated. This year, the share of municipalities of 5 thousand billion tomans, which is predicted for driving crimes, is 1200 billion tomans, of which only 340 billion tomans are to be allocated to the development of public transportation. There is no doubt that the parliament will use its legal tools to try to improve these imbalances in the discussion of the development of public transportation in cities.