APSRTC to buy diesel from retail market

Vijayawada: The Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation (APSRTC) is caught in a strange situation in which it is losing everyday about Rs 31 lakh on purchase of high speed diesel (HSD) in bulk directly from the oil manufacturing companies. In fact, the bulk purchaser gets the benefit of low price compared to the price in the retail market. It is reversed here for reasons better known to the powers-that-be.

Swiftly moving to curtail the losses, the vice-chairman and managing director of the APSRTC Ch Dwaraka Tirumala Rao took a decision to purchase HSD from the retail outlets across the state.

Generally, the RTC goes for tenders once in three years to select oil companies for supply of HSD to its 129 depots across the state. In the tenders, the depots are allotted to the oil companies which offer competitive discounts per kilolitre on the prevailing bulk consumer price. As per the discounts offered by the oil companies in previous tender, the gross discount availed by the RTC stood at Rs 52.46 crore in 2021.

The retail price applicable to general consumers at the petrol bunks is always much higher than the bulk price. But the Central government recently directed the oil companies to keep the retail HSD oil price at Rs 96.02 per litre for the past three months but allowed the companies to hike the price up to Rs 100.41 per litre for the bulk consumers.

Same is the case in the neighbouring states of Telangana, Kerala and Pondicherry also.

In order to avoid loss, the RTC has decided to form depot-wise committees to purchase diesel in their respective areas at competent price. This may continue till the bulk price is less than the retail price, the MD said.

If the bulk price is reduced in future, the RTC is planning to supply diesel to the government vehicles which would save about Rs 50 crore every year for the government.

Referring to the compassionate appointments, the MD said that the Chief Minister had given green signal to appoint all the 1,500 applicants as early as possible. In the case of medically unfit drivers, their children would be given appointments as per the government guidelines since the RTC employees were merged with the government.

The MD expressed satisfaction over the performance of the RTC and said that it is being run on sound financial ground. The cargo service is an instant hit, he said.