The Consumer Group had charged that bus fare increases were unfair and should not be allowed because the private operators are still posting operating profits and that many of the buses have already been converted to run on natural gas for vehicles (NGV).

They asked the Court of Appeals to consider:

•   Oil prices have been rising for months causing the cost of operating both private and public transportation fuels to rise.

•   That mass transportation provides a choice to consumers who cannot or do not wish to pay the added cost of private transportation, yet both public and privately run mass transportation need enough income to function.

•   The rise in fares reflected the rise in gasoline and diesel costs that had to be paid by both public and private bus operators. However, on Sunday, May 24th, Bangkok bus fares rose by between one baht and 1.50 baht, but the Transport Ministry ordered the state-run BMTA to freeze its fares to help commuters.

•   The decision of the Transport Ministry was to have the government pay for the cost increase so as to help commuters.

•   Private bus operators kept the fare increases because they will not receive the subsidies given to the state-run BMTA, but still have to pay the added cost of fuel to run their buses.

•   Private bus operators were still in trouble because commuters had opted to travel on state-run buses that had frozen their fares.

•   The Consumer Group's claim that most buses now run on natural gas is inaccurate. Of more than 10,000 private buses in greater Bangkok, just 1,700 have been modified to run on NGV.

•   The ruling by the Administrative Court to freeze the fares places the entire burden of absorbing the added cost of fuel costs on the private bus companies and assumes that the facts presented by the Consumer Group are correct before examining them.

Therefore the Private bus operators ask the Court of Appeal to overturn the ruling by the Administrative Court until the facts in the case are examined.