• Where does the administration get stuck?
• Bid to waive fine of Tk 700 cr sparks outrage

Staff Reporter:

Questions have intensified over the role of concerned administration and critics say that, who is more powerful, administration or the leaders of CNG driven auto-rickshaw and auto-tempo owners’ association? Where does the administration get stuck? What the reasons behind such lax-vigilance?

Although, more than 40,000 (forty thousand) unlicensed CNG-powered auto-rickshaws ply on various roads and highways in Sirajganj district, not a single CNG-powered vehicle has been registered in the last eight years due to mysterious reasons.

Moreover, an evil bid to waive the fines of those illegal vehicles in the name of updating necessary documents including registration continues that may cause a revenue loss of Tk 600 crore to Tk 700 crore to the government.

Meanwhile, on the basis of an application submitted by the District CNG-powered auto-rickshaw and auto-tempo human hauler owners’ group, Md. Aminul Islam, Deputy Commissioner (DC) and also President of Passenger and Goods Transport Committee in Sirajganj sent a letter to the Chairman of BRTA on July 13 seeking exemption of all fines for registering and updating the necessary documents of illegal CNG driven auto-rickshaws and auto-tempos.

If the application is approved, the government is likely to incur lose about Tk 600 crore to Tk 700 crore in revenue, insiders said.

On the other hand, the drivers and owners, who have become profited by running these illegal vehicles on different roads and highways for the past years, have remained outside of legal action that spread anger among other transports’ owners.

Many of them say that, the nation wants to know what interests are hidden in the administration behind giving unilateral opportunities only to CNG owners and workers instead of providing such facilities to all transports’ owners.

According to information received from the district BRTA office under RTI Act, the total number of CNG-powered auto-rickshaws registered in the district is 4010. The last registration was given on December 24, 2018. After that, no more CNG registrations were issued in the district.

In this circumstance, almost all of these registered and unregistered CNG powered vehicles have turned to illegal as their papers for fitness, rout permit and tax were not updated further.

Basically, the CNG-powered vehicle drivers collect specialized sticker, locally known as token every month by paying Tk 500 (five hundred) from some identified people recruited by the association leaders based on areas and drive the vehicles on different routes without any restriction. In exchange for those stickers/tokens, they get relief from harassment of the law enforcement agencies, especially traffic police. In this way, the leaders collect about Tk 2 crore every month and Tk 24 crore every year, relevant sources said.

There are allegations that, this money is shared among the traffic police, several thana police and unscrupulous officers of BRTA and deputy commissioner’s office.

This culture was introduced during the previous Awami League government, although the movement of CNG-powered auto-rickshaws and auto-tempos in Sirajganj district became widespread around 2008-2009.

According to BRTA sources, the annual renewal fee for a registered CNG vehicle, including tax, fitness, route permit and advance income tax (AIT), is Tk 12,889.

On the other hand, if a driver pays a monthly toll of Tk 500, he has to pay only Tk 6000 per year (12 months). That is why, owners and drivers feel more comfortable paying monthly toll instead of registration and renewal, they said.

Alongside, if the renewal is not done on time, each vehicle owner has to pay a fine of approximately (5520+1825+1068) Tk 8413 per year for fitness, route permit and tax, which comes to approximately Tk 67,304 in eight years.

According to the annual rate of Tk 12,889, the renewal fee of eight years comes to over Tk 1 lakh.

That is, the eight-year renewal fee and fine together will cost each vehicle over Tk 1.70 lakh.

If the registration fee of Tk 18,239 is added to this, the amount of money comes to around Tk 1.90 lakh.

According to the statement of BRTA, the government has incurred lose at about Tk 68 crore as revenue from the 4010 registered vehicles in the last eight years due to no collection of renewal fees and fines.

On the other hand, the government has also deprived of revenue at about Tk 700 crore from over 35000 unregistered vehicles.

A truck owner in the town on condition of anonymity told that, “CNG auto-rickshaws have been plying various roads, highways and regional roads mysteriously without renewing their licenses and documents. The administration has avoided responsibility by holding a few mobile courts. Besides, the bid to waive of all fines has raised question over the role of concerned government officials.”

Experts seem that, if the fines are exempted, the government will lose a huge amount of revenue.

Al Amin Chowdhury Palash, President of Sirajganj District CNG-powered auto-rickshaw and auto-tempo human hauler owners’ group, admitted about the collection of toll and said, “As per a directive from the Ministry of Commerce, we collect a monthly toll of Tk 300 from each CNG powered auto-rickshaw on the basis of a rate of Tk 10 per day.

But, he could not answer clearly about the remaining Tk 200.

When he was also requested to show or present the instruction of Commerce Ministry, he asked to contact a TV journalist mentioning that the journo is their organization’s leader.

When asked about the reasons behind not renewing the documents of these vehicles for long, Abu Naim, Assistant Director (AD) of BRTA, Sirajganj Circle said, “With the cooperation of the district administration, BRTA runs mobile courts against these illegal vehicles at different times and collects fines.”

When the official was questioned that, are the number of mobile court and amount of fines enough compared to the overall loss, he avoided answering.

According to the data obtained by a RTI application, BRTA, in collaboration with the district administration, has conducted about 588 drives against illegal vehicles (all modes of vehicles, not only against CNG run auto-rickshaws) and filed 1,020 cases in five years from 2019 to 2023. Several illegal vehicles were also fined during the time.

Tazul Islam, Motor Vehicle Inspector of BRTA in Sirajganj said, “After publishing several news-reports on different newspapers recently, a meeting has been held at the Deputy Commissioner’s office, where decision has been taken to start fresh registration activities for the CNG run auto-rickshaws and auto-tempos. But, no one is yet to come for registration due to mysterious role of the association leaders and lack of official campaigns.”