TSRTC mulls 40 paise/km fare hike to save it from closure

Hyderabad: Even before the people have recovered from the negative impact of Covid-19 on their income, the TSRTC is getting ready to burn a bigger hole in the pockets of the public. The corporation is mulling to recommend an increase of about 40 paise per km.

According to officials, the Road Transport Corporation had suffered a loss of Rs 3,000 crore during the pandemic and the situation is such that the authorities are unable to pay salaries to the employees on time.

Hence the TSRTC feels that this hike would be inevitable as it needs to overcome the losses and bear the burden of pay revision which is due.

But experts feel that without improving the connectivity if the TSRTC goes in for a tariff hike, it would result in passengers going away from the RTC.

Passengers will not mind spending additional Rs 300 or 400 as it may save on their petrol bills in case the service is good and if they have better connectivity which is badly lacking at present.

It was during 2019, the RTC fares were increased by 20 paise per kilometre to mop up Rs 750 crore.

The hike resulted in additional revenue of over Rs 50 lakh per day for the corporation. A senior official on condition of anonymity said that the gap between income and expenditure was increasing and the corporation needs Rs 1,500 crore to put it back on track.

Trade Union leader and former Director of APSRTC M Nageswara Rao said that it was wrong to attribute losses due to corona.

He said corona impact was there only since March 2020 but there were losses to the RTC to the tune of Rs 1,000 crore before 2020 and Rs 929 crore during 2018-19, when there was no pandemic.

The officials were misleading the CM stating that the price hike was the only option. Ticket fare hike was not the only option for the government, he said.

The real problem in TSRTC is mismanagement of routes by the authorities. They miserably failed to exercise rationality in operating buses on certain routes. The government collects Rs 800 crore as taxes from the RTC like VAT on diesel (27 percent), sales taxes on spare parts, MV Tax of 7 percent of income.

If the government could waive the taxes, there wouldn't be a need to increase the fares, he added. If the government allows a fare hike of 5 per cent every year, the corporation can sustain the diesel price hike, he said, adding that if the prices are increased, passengers will look for alternatives.