Hyderabad: Brace for bus fare, power tariff hike

Hyderabad: The State Government is getting ready to impose financial burden on people by increasing the RTC bus fares and also the electricity charges.

Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao chaired a meeting with the TSRTC and Energy department officials on Tuesday. The officials informed the Chief Minister that the corporation was facing huge losses because of the corona pandemic and rising diesel prices. The officials said that during the last one year diesel prices were increased up to Rs 22, which is leading to an excess burden of Rs 550 crore. Besides the diesel, the prices of spare parts like tyres and tubes have also gone up in the recent times. This is leading to losses of Rs 600 crore annually. The corporation had to lose Rs 3,000 crore as revenue because of lockdown, informed the officials to the Chief Minister. In Hyderabad alone, the losses are up to Rs 90 crore per month. All the 97 depots are running in losses, the officials said. The officials said that there was no other way than increasing ticket prices. Though there was a proposal to increase ticket fares in March 2020, it was not implemented because of the pandemic. The officials said that already the government was taking care of welfare of the employees and they were not willing to enforce further burden on the government. They said that if fares are not increased the survival of RTC would be difficult.

The Chief Minister asked the officials to come with a report before the next cabinet meeting and would take a decision after discussing it.

Energy Minister G Jagadish Reddy said that the power utilities had to suffer huge losses because of the corona lockdown. He said that the prices were not increased during the last two years. The officials said that to save the power utilities, there is no other option but to increase prices.