The Ministry of Communities and Territories Development supports the draft law on compensation for preferential bus travel

The Ministry of Communities and Territories Development supports a draft law that will regulate the issue of compensation for citizens' preferential travel by road.

According to Oleksandr Dyachenko, Head of the Department of Internal Road Transportation of the Ministry of Development, there were two draft laws that could have regulated this issue before the full-scale invasion. As of today, due to a number of factors, the draft law No. 5651 “On Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of Ukraine on Fare Benefits and Some Other Benefits” is under consideration and revision.

As a reminder, the document provides for:

• The compensation mechanism excludes the carrier as a party to this process. The parties to the compensation relationship are the local government and the beneficiary.
• The local authorities approve the procedure for compensation for transportation of privileged categories of citizens based on the capacity of their own budgets.
• The beneficiary buys a ticket and then applies for monetary compensation to the relevant local government authorities.

According to Alyona Veklich, director MAPA, there is currently no clear mechanism for compensating carriers for privileged tickets. 

"The legislation stipulates that the carrier is obliged to transport passengers of privileged categories and receive compensation for this, but the mechanism of compensation is not defined. This is a big problem, because the carrier simply cannot operate at a loss and transport an indefinite number of privileged passengers, and privileged passengers do not understand why they may be denied a trip. Thus, in 2024, carriers transported privileged category passengers at their own expense for more than UAH 117 million”, said Aliona Veklich.