Bt1m severance plan to pay off fare collectors

THE BANGKOK Mass Transit Authority (BMTA) is planning to give Bt1 million severance pay to its bus-fare collectors as part of a plan to downsize its workforce. 
“In the 2018 fiscal year, we are going to seek a Bt2 billion budget for the early retirement of about 2,000 fare collectors,” BMTA acting director Yook Jarupume said yesterday. 
If the budget is approved, each fare collector participating in the early retirement programme will receive an average Bt1 million. 
Yook said he had heard that several fare collectors were interested in joining the programme. 
He said the BMTA intends to cut the number of fare collectors in response to a new ticketing system that will soon be installed on some buses and will not require collectors. 
At present, the BMTA fleet has an average of about 4.8 fare collectors per bus. It believes the number of fare collectors will be cut in half by 2019.
“The move will allow the BMTA to lower its costs,” Yook said. 
The BMTA has been struggling with Bt103 billion debts. It was required to submit a solution to its debt problem to a meeting of relevant authorities yesterday. 
At the meeting were representatives from various agencies including the Public Debt Management Office, the State Enterprise Policy Office and the National Economic and Social Development Board. 
Deputy Minister of Transport Pichit Akrathit, who also attended the meeting, said the BMTA rehabilitation plan was still unacceptable. 
“At the meeting, the BMTA was told to work out the details and clearly specify its bus-operation costs first. Those figures are important to sorting out its debt problems,” he said. 
He said the BMTA brought three proposals to yesterday’s meeting – one having the government absorb all its debts, the second having the government shoulder Bt84.89 billion of its debts and the third having the government pay for Bt55.79 billion of its debts.
The BMTA reasoned that public service obligations and government policies have caused much of its debts.
“The BMTA needs to improve its debt-rehabilitation plan,” Pichit said. 
He pointed out that the proposals did not show any action plan or link to internal-improvement strategies. “This plan, moreover, does not mention how to prevent corruption,” the deputy transport minister said. 
Pichit said the BMTA was expected to improve its debt-rehabilitation plan within two months. 
“When it comes to the next meeting, it must present the option that the BMTA board has chosen. Then, the Transport Ministry will decide whether to approve that proposal,” he said.
Pichit did not comment on the generous severance pay the BMTA has planned for its bus-fare collectors but he said that the staff-cost reduction could help ease the BMTA debt problems.