YEREVAN. – Virtually half of the passenger flow in Armenia’s capital city Yerevan is not calculated, stated “Consumers’ Association” NGO Chairman Armen Poghosyan, during a press conference on Wednesday.   

In his words, the statements, according to which no more than fourteen people commute in the public transport minibuses, are not true.    

“But the municipal authorities do not speak about this; this is a violation of the rules on minibus operation and passenger service,” Poghosyan stressed. 

As per the NGO chairman, the standing passengers of the public transport minibuses are not calculated during taxation, and this is profitable for the transportation companies.

“This non-calculated revenue must be regulated,” Armen Poghosyan added.            

As Armenian News-NEWS.am informed earlier, the Yerevan Municipality recent decision to increase the public transport fares in the city had brought about outbursts, several groups were formed in the social networks, and the initiatives were staging protests and distributing pamphlets against this decision. In addition, the Free Car initiative was launched, along the lines of which Armenia’s numerous well-known personalities, MPs, and ordinary residents were providing—with their own vehicles—free transportation to the people.

And on July 25, Mayor Taron Margaryan suspended the decision on the fare hike; but the wave of the aforesaid movement is still alive. The activists demand that the persons, who made the decision on raising the transport fares, be brought to account, and those officials, who used violence against and cursed at the activists, be punished.