Allow long-distance transport, announce Tk 5000cr stimulus package: transport owners, workers

Transport owners and workers placed a five-point demand today, including the resumption of long-distance transportat half capacity.

Lawmaker Shahjahan Khan, president of Bangladesh Road Transport Workers Federation, placed the demands during a press briefing in Jatiya Press Club.

The demands by Bangladesh Road Transport Owners Association (BRTOA), Bangladesh Bus-Truck Owners' Association, and Bangladesh Road Transport Workers Federation include:

1. Allowing operations of goods and public vehicles, including long-distance ones -- maintaining health guidelines and functioning at half capacity.

2. (A) Giving financial and food aid to workers who lost jobs during the lockdown.

(B) Allocating Tk 5,000 crore stimulus package --at low interest rate and under easy conditions -- to transport owners to ensure workers' salary and bonus before Eid.

3. Distributing OMS rice at Tk 10 per kg at bus and truck terminals around the country.

4. Getting all banks and financial organisations to waive debt interest for public transport businesses, and suspend installments till December 31 due to Covid-19; changing classified debts into unclassified ones in exchange for a two percent down payment.

5. Waiving tax-token, route permit fees of vehicles due to closure during the lockdown, and extend the deadline for updating documents till December 31.