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No Traffic law today in Bangladesh
M S Siddiqui writes for DOT :
The last Parliament has passed The Road Traffic Act 2018 and had repealed the previous law Motor Vehicles Ordinance, 1983 (Ordinance No. LV of 1983) has been annulled. The new law will be effective with the gazette notification of the government (sec 2-1). Government has yet to promulgate notification of the new law. Therefore, there is no traffic law exist today in Bangladesh.
As per sec 27: Government will form Passenger and good carrying Committee at Division, District and Metropolitan City and issue rule to determine the authority of the committee. Sec. no 38 authorized the government to allow any local government or any other organization to manage and maintain and supervise the stations for passenger and goods. The nominated organization will determine and collect the service charges. At present the trade union and or association of owners are ‘authorized’ to do the such job and there is a long standing problem of charging service charges, which relevant stakeholders consider as extortion of money with causing increase of cost of transportations and other crimes. There is a fear that the extortion and toll collection will continue under the legal coverage of new law.
The best part of the law is provision of (clause 53) formation of trust fund for compensation of the victim of the motor accident and for both injury and death. But the trust is not as per The Trust Act 1882. Government will promulgate a rule for formation of trust. Government will fix one time contribution and annual contribution for all motor vehicles in private sector. The clause no: 16 (2) have a provision that no vehicle will not be registered without payment for determined fees for “trust fund for road accident” but due to absence of rule and pending of date of activation of the law, BRTA yet to collect any fee for road safety fund.
Government will nominate the trustees and control the activities of the trust. The trust will determine the amount of compensation for victims. The discretionary authority of determination the compensation will create an option of corruption and nepotism in determination of compensation. The rule should be very strict with narrow discretionary power to the trust. Such trust fund are crated in all the countries of the world and compensation for death and cost of treatment for victim is available either from such trust fund or 3rd party liability insurance coverage of the responsible vehicle.
The law also imposed subscription on workers trade Union (cause no 57-1). There will be another probable option of extortion of money from workers by the trade union in the name of government tax on drivers and helpers etc.
Even government may take the ‘excess amount to the national exchequer from the trust (clause 57-4). This is against the trust law that government cannot take money from a trust if they desire.
The new law made the 3rd party insurance optional (clause 60). A Motor Third Party Liability Insuranceis a form of insurance obtained by an insured vehicle (first party) from an insurance company (second party) for protection against the claims of victim of accident (third party). The third party motor insurance covers the insured vehicles in case any liability claim arises out of bodily injury, property damage, or death of a person (third party).In most countries, motor third-party liability (MTPL) insurance is compulsory in order to protect the common people. The most advantage of the 3rd party insurance that the victim will get treatment and/ compensation from the insurance company without any question. In case of hit and run situation (if the responsible vehicle is could not be identified), the victim will get compensation from trust fund. Bangladesh is going to different direction to resolve the road accident problem unlike any other country. The law should be amended to make mandatory 3rd party insurance and create a transparent trust fund as early as possible. The trust should be run by independent and competent authority as per The Trust act, 1882.
The writer is a Legal Economist.