Pensioners to Lose Free Public Transport: How Will They Pay

In Ukraine, plans are in place to abandon free travel with identification cards and introduce a new payment model for public transport. Formally, all passengers will pay, but costs for privileged passengers will be reimbursed from the budget. This is reported by Znay.ua.

This concerns bill No. 5651-2, prepared by the Ministry of Communities and Territories Development. The document proposes a complete change in the approach to transporting privileged categories.

Privileged Transport: What the Bill Proposes

According to the initiative, pension and veteran certificates will no longer provide the right to free travel. All passengers will pay for their trips through a validator.

A different scheme is proposed for privileged individuals:

• funds for travel will be transferred to a special bank card
• payment will be made with this card during the trip
• actual expenses will be reimbursed from the budget.

Thus, the passenger will 'enter – pay – leave' without needing to prove their entitlement to a discount to the driver. It is expected that this will reduce conflicts and simplify control over reimbursements.

Reimbursement for Travel: Who Will Pay and From Which Budget

Funding will depend on the category of the privileged person. Travel for veterans will be funded from the state budget in coordination with relevant structures. Other categories will be funded by local communities.

At the same time, the volume of reimbursements will directly depend on the capabilities of local budgets. If there are insufficient funds, support may be limited.

The initiators of the changes emphasize that the new system will allow transparent accounting of expenses for transporting privileged individuals and will reveal the actual load on routes.

Recall that in Ukraine, changes are being prepared for the payment system for privileged categories.