Azeris Angry at Fare Increases in Capital

The authorities in the Azerbaijani capital Baku have raised the price of underground rail travel by a third, angering many commuters but provoking only a small protest by students.

The news was announced on November 28, giving Baku residents just two days to get used to the fact that from the beginning of December, they would be paying 20 qapiks, around 26 US cents, instead of 15 qapiks, for a journey.

Anyone who tried to use the two days to prepay for trips at the lower price, with the electronic cards used on the metro system, was disappointed. A technical fault prevented customers from buying more than four journeys at a time, although the problem mysteriously disappeared on December 1.

Outside a central Baku station, a group of students gathered and waved banners in protest at the fare hike. Police broke up the demonstration, and briefly detained two participants.

“I’m delighted someone has taken to the streets over the price rise,” said 50-year-old teacher Humbat Rahimov, who witnessed the protest. “I regularly talk to my students on social networking sites, so I know there was a wave of activism and a campaign to boycott the metro on Facebook.”

Rahimov contrasted the students’ direct action with the quiet grumbling of others.

“On my way to work this morning… I was surprised how few people were prepared to voice their unhappiness openly,” he said. “Almost everyone in the metro was cursing the government for raising fares, but they were just too lazy to support the young protesters.”

Tagi Ahmadov, head of the Baku metro, told RFE/RL that he was simply following orders from the Tariff Council, the city department that decides how much tickets should cost.

“My duty is to tell the Tariff Council every quarter how much it costs to transport one passenger,” he said, adding that the real unit cost per trip came to around 50 qapiks.

“If anyone doesn’t like the price, they can stop using the metro,” he added.

Meanwhile, officials said they attempted to find out why the plastic cards used instead of tickets on the metro stopped allowing people to prepay at the cheap rate.

“We were told the restrictions on [purchasing] journeys were caused by technical problems. The State Committee for Anti-Monopoly Policy is subjecting this to particular scrutiny,” economy ministry spokesman Abbas Aliyev said.

The fare increases were accompanied by price rises for utilities like hot water and central heating.

Also on December 1, the minimum legal wage was raised by ten percent to 93.5 manats a month.

The head of the opposition Musavat party, Isa Gambar, said the price rise on the metro was criminal, and even some government allies complained about it. For instance, Vahid Ahmadov, who sits on the Azerbaijani parliament’s economic development committee in parliament, said the fare increase should have been delayed.

“They should have waited until we passed the budget. The 2012 budget will set aside eight million manats for pay rises,” he said.

Some Baku residents thought the protests were exaggerated. Isa Jumshudzade, 45, pointed out that fare prices were still far below the metro’s actual operating costs.

“I don’t know why they’re all so dissatisfied,” he said. “All over the world, the metro is the most expensive form of urban transport because of the high associated costs. If we want travel on the metro to be safe, it follows that we have to pay more.”

Others, however, say, they just cannot afford to pay more. Ulviyya Ismailova, a 67-year-old pensioner, said that when the authorities increased in the married couples’ pension, she realised “it wasn’t done out of the kindness of their hearts”.

“Just wait and see, first the metro and soon the bus will become more expensive,” she said. “Then I will have to go and see my grandchildren by bike. And other prices will go up, too.”

Aliya Haqverdi is a freelance journalist in Azerbaijan.