The Ministry of Education spends $25m on subsidized bus fares for students annually.

Minister for Economy Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum, says the government wants to do more however, they also have to ensure the assistance goes to the deserving people.

Sayed-Khaiyum says the subsidized cards are meant for those students who come from families who earn less than $16,000 annually.

However, he says this assistance is being abused.

“We are seeing many parents are getting these students or many teachers infact some of them maybe helping them to get cards when they actually don’t deserve those cards. By you doing so you are actually stealing from the system. You should not do that. If you have reported your card lost please make sure you genuinely lost your cards.”

The Minister says he has heard of cases where students actually go and sell their cards for money.

He says there are some students who give the cards to their parents.

Sayed-Khaiyum is reminding parents that these cards are meant for the students.