Bus Fares to go up in telangana
For representational purpose only
Hyderabad: The TSRTC management has proposed to increase bus fare by 25 paise per km for the ordinary/ Palle Velugu services and 30 paise per km for the express buses.
Transport Minister Puvvada Ajay Kumar said increase in fares had become inevitable as RTC depends mostly on the revenue generated from tickets. RTC had suffered huge losses due to the Covid-19 pandemic and to overcome the losses fare hike was the only option available to them.
Addressing a press conference here at the Transport Bhavan along with RTC Chairman Bajireddy Govardhan and MD VC Sajjanar, the minister said that the difference between the income and expenditure has increased and if the fares are not increased the losses cannot be reduced.
The Corporation, he said, had suffered losses to the tune of Rs 4,260 crore during the last three years. The RTC expects to mop up Rs 680 crore per annum if the fares were revised.
Incidentally, the Corporation had increased fares on the same day two years ago. The fare hike decision was taken on December 1, 2019. However, it did not result in any benefit to the Corporation due to the two waves of the Covid19 pandemic.
"Now the hike in diesel prices has struck yet another blow," he said. The Corporation consumes 6.8 lakh litres of diesel per day. When the fares were increased in 2019, the diesel prices were Rs 68.29 per litre while now it was Rs 87.07 per litre that too because RTC is a bulk consumer and gets diesel at a lesser price.
Because of the hike in diesel prices, the Corporation suffered loss of Rs 468 crore, he said. When asked why the Corporation did not ask the government to reduce VAT on diesel, the minister said that the State Government was providing a subsidy of Rs 1,500 crore to RTC, which was more than the VAT benefit.
TSRTC MD VC Sajjanar said from April to October the Corporation suffered losses of Rs 1,440 crore. He said that the Corporation has taken up a survey in which only 4 per cent of people said the fare hike would impact them and remaining had other concerns like cleanliness and safety.
Replying to another question, he said that there was no proposal to sell or lease out the RTC lands. Chairman Bajireddy Govardhan said they were also planning to scrap 633 buses. Another 1,400 buses need repairs.