PETALING JAYA, Feb 24 (Bernama) -- The Federation of Malaysian Consumer Associations (Fomca) today called on the government to develop the urban and rural public transportation systems simultenously to achieve substantial savings on fuel subsidy.
So far, the government had only unveiled the programme to improve the urban public transportation system and had been quiet on the rural sector, said its president, Datuk N. Marimuthu.
He said that in some rural areas there was no public transportation at all and even if there was, it was with irregular timing with old buses and taxis.
He told Bernama that at present only 20 per cent of Malaysians were using public transportation because of irregular timing, insufficient buses and trains and generally poor service.
In the next 10 years or so, if 50 per cent of Malaysia could use public transportation, the country could gain tremendously by reducing carbon dioxide emmision and traffic congestion and saving in fuel subsidy, he added.
He suggested a cross-subsidy to operate public transportation, where the more profitable urban sector could subsidise the rural areas, and urged the government to study the models available in the world, especially Japan's and Singapore's systems, to come up with a suitable one for Malaysia.
-- BERNAMA
