TSRTC eyes revenues sans increasing fleet of buses

Hyderabad: The Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (TSRTC), of late, took several initiatives to improve its efficiency and to generate better revenues. It is also planning to improve services and maintain a clean image to attract more passengers.

In this regard, the Corporation has even recently reshuffled the administration with immediate effect and appointed a retired IPS rank officer as its Chief Operating Officer for coordinating with other staff and assist the Managing Director in the decision-making process. Last week, a fare hike was also effected with the Safety Cess and Passenger Cess.

However, the TSRTC trade union leaders have criticised the government for not assisting the RTC in getting new buses. They said the majority of buses have already run over 15 lakh kilometres and their condition has turned from bad to worse.

"On one hand, the number of buses is decreasing resulting in a dip in operations and on the other, the officials want to generate revenues. How the revenues can be generated if there are no operations?" asked a union leader.

According to TSRTC, the Corporation has earned Rs 4,882 crore in financial year 2018-19. However, the bus strike observed for 55 days had dented its revenues in later part of 2019. After the fare was hiked in December 2019, the overall revenues for the financial year 2019-20 stood at Rs 4,592 crore. In 2020-21, Rs 2,455 crore was earned after lifting of curbs induced by the Covid pandemic.

Trade union leader and former director of Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation (APSRTC) M Nageswara Rao earlier gave a suggestion to overcome this problem. He said the RTC buses should be point-to-point to control the illicit operations of private buses which would net a minimum revenue of Rs 700 crore yearly. Rao had further requested Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao to provide funds from the Constituency Development Fund (CDF) of the MLAs to procure buses.

He said that the government had earmarked Rs 800 crore under the CDF for the year 2021-22 for all the MLAs and MLCs. "If each of the elected representatives (MLAs and MLCs) can provide two buses each, the Corporation can procure 300 new buses, which will result in better transportation to the people of the State," he added. He said that the CM should give a call to the MLAs and MPs to provide Rs 50 lakh each for getting new buses.

Each year, 28 per cent of total revenue on an average Rs 1,400 crore is utilised to procure fuel. "The government is charging over 27 per cent Value Added Tax on fuel expenses yearly. If the government stops taking a huge VAT, on an average Rs 300 crore would be saved as the Corporation is State-run," he added.