Azerbaijan, Baku, November 29 / Trend, E. Mehdiyev /
Subway fares are the lowest transport fares in Azerbaijan, Ali Hasanov, Head of the President's Office's Public and Political Department, reported on Tuesday. He was commenting on an increase of subway fares.
The Tariff Board of Azerbaijan decided to raise subway fares up to 0.20 manat. The new tariff will take effect from December 1, 2011.
"Of course, we understand that either subway or buses are the kinds of public transport and that poor layers of population most often use these kinds of transport. No matter how much subsidies the state assigns to this field, if subway cannot recuperate part of its expenditures it is senseless to keep it in the conditions of current global market economy and so does the Baku subway," Hasanov noted.
Thus, the state keeps a new subsidizing policy regarding this matter, he noted.
"We think 0.20 manat as subway fares is the fair price till a certain moment and will contribute to improvement of subway services and, to extent, ease its subsidizing," Hasanov said.