After their first petition for reconsideration of parking fees failed, the truckers in Phuentsholing have written to the Phuentsholing Thromde again, yesterday.
They had first approached the office on May 27 after the parking fees was increased from Nu.50 to Nu.265 for 24 hours.
The Thromde office in Phuentsholing had responded saying the rate revision was considered keeping in mind the sustainability issue and for the parking lot to be maintained.
“Thromde officials said it is not compulsory to park our vehicles in the truck parking but at the same time we are not allowed to park our trucks in and around the town,” said Tshering Nidup, a trucker.
Another driver, Chedup, said instead of helping people, the government is robbing them of our earnings.
The Thromde had negotiated the rate to be Nu.150 for 24 hours. But this rate, the truckers say, is still unreasonable.
“We cannot accept that because we have to park our trucks for days. We even proposed about 10 percent increase as per our capability, but they are not agreeing,” said Tshewang Rinzin, who is also a trucker.
The Thromde office said since the negotiation has failed, there’s nothing else they can do. They also added that the rate was already 150 for 24 hours as per the contract with the previous parking fee operator but since the contract value was low at that time, the operator had fixed Nu.50 for 24 hours as parking fee, on his own.
Meanwhile, the truckers, for now, are paying the previous parking fee. They said they will appeal to higher authorities once the new government is formed.
