RTC slaps diesel cess from today

Hyderabad: The common man in Telangana will have to shell out more for travel following TSRTC's decision to collect diesel cess from Saturday.

The corporation has announced diesel cess of Rs 2 per passenger for Pallevelugu and City Ordinary services and Rs 5 per passenger for Express, Deluxe, Super Luxury, City Metro Express and Deluxe and all AC services. However, the minimum fare of Rs 10 in Pallevelugu and City Ordinary services will continue to be the same.

Last month, the TSRTC raised the fares of City and Garuda Plus buses in the name of toll cess, revision of ticket fares and passenger cess. Now, with the diesel cess, the authorities feel that they would be able to offset the losses to some extent.

After the increase in fares, the TSRTC is likely to generate around Rs 16 crore per day as against Rs 10-12 crore at present.

"The TSRTC consumes around 6 lakh litres of HSD oil every day for bus operations and the price of HSD oil has increased by Rs 35 as against the price of Rs 83 per litre in December 2021," said RTC officials.

TSRTC Chairman and MLA Bajireddy Goverdhan said the diesel price rise during the last few days has forced the RTC to levy cess. "Passengers travelling by TSRTC buses have supportive of the corporation in difficult times for the past several decades and the people will continue to support the organisation as it is still the cheapest mode of transport."