Skopje, 3 October 2025 (MIA) - Three private bus companies that service bus routes in Skopje said Friday they would reduce their operations by 70 percent and operate only from 5 am to 10 am starting from Monday, October 6, if the debt they are owed isn’t repaid.

The owners of private bus companies Jofi Bus, Vestor Trans, and Rados Kompani demanded at a press conference Friday that Skopje’s Public Transport Enterprise (JSP) repay a debt of Mden 170 million, of which, they said, Mden 90 million are currently due.

“The debt owed to us has not been settled since April, meaning for six months now. If JSP employees can endure six months without pay, we cannot. Today we planned to stop operating, but we want to be fair to the citizens of Skopje and will wait until Monday. If the funds are transferred to us, we want to continue working and will keep driving. We need a payment from JSP immediately,” said Jovica Zafirovski, owner of Jofi Bus.

The head of JSP, Dragi Kushovski, who joined the press conference, said the state of the public enterprise is well-known and that this is not an excuse, but stressed the debts to the private transporters are being paid according to JSP’s capabilities. He also claimed the debt owed to the private transporters is around Mden 60 million.

“Since I’ve become director [of JSP], the debt has been reducing and is not the figure stated by the private transporters. The manipulation of the public must stop. JSP is operating with the bus fleet it owns, deploying all available buses. We are aware of a shortage of buses, but allowing our buses to be crowded so that the buses of the private transporters are preserved and not worn out is unacceptable. They should be fair to the citizens instead of trailing behind JSP buses. The debt owed to all three private transport companies is around Mden 60 million,” Kushovski said.

Photo: MIA