Vehicle registration sees sharp decline

The number of registered vehicles across the country -- including the capital -- witnessed a sharp decline last year, mainly due to economic slowdown induced by Covid-19 .

While vehicles registered all over the country declined last year for the first time since 2013, Dhaka saw the trend for second consecutive year, shows data of Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA).

Dhaka witnessed 34 percent decline last year compared to 2019, with the rate for the entire country being 24.07 percent, it shows.

The registration of trucks saw the highest fall -- 43.26 percent, followed by bus (32.68 percent), private cars (26.08 percent) and motorcycles (22.52 percent).

The government imposed a nationwide shutdown from March 26 last year, to control spread of Covid-19.

During the period, millions lost jobs, poverty rate doubled and many businesses folded up. Income of the vast majority of the population shrank, shows data.

Although the situation has been improving, full recovery of the economy is still far away, experts said.

A total of 3.78 lakh vehicles were registered across the country last year, while the number was 4.97 lakh in 2019, according to BRTA's data.

Of the vehicles, 1.18 lakh were registered with offices in Dhaka last year. The number was 1.58 lakh in 2019.

Truck registration saw the highest decline. Some 3,900 trucks were registered across the country while it was 5,293 in previous year.

A total of 3.11 lakh motorcycle were registered across the country last year while the number was four lakhs in 2019.

Ibrahim Khalil, assistant director of BRTA, said registration process of vehicles remained halted completely for more than two months during the shutdown, and later they resumed the operation gradually.

Owners of private cars have to pay more than previous years as advance income tax, he said. Besides, people's overall economic condition deteriorated due to the pandemic, he added.

"All these reasons are to blame for the decline of the vehicle registration," he told The Daily Star yesterday.

Noted economist Ahsan H Mansur said there was a declining trend of registration of private cars and microbuses in the country for last few years.

Adverse impact of Covid-19 on economy was added into it, resulting the sharp drop last year, he told The Daily Star yesterday.

New and reconditioned cars and microbuses getting registered with BRTA continued to drop across the country for the third consecutive year.

Ahsan, also the executive director of Policy Research Institute of Bangladesh, said high important tax and maintenance cost, lack of parking facilities and growing popularity of ridesharing services are reasons behind the drop in car and microbus registration.

Transport experts, however, see the trend as a ray of hope for reducing the capital's traffic congestion. They blame cars for taking up road space while carrying fewer people than larger vehicles.

From independence to 2020, 45.68 lakh vehicles were registered with the BRTA. Some 15.28 lakh of those were registered in Dhaka. But the transport authorities do not have any record on how many of these vehicles are on the road now.

Besides, there are several lakh unregistered vehicles plying the roads.