Jharkhand Bus Owners Association (JBOA) is not at all happy with any proposed hike in different taxes for operations of passenger buses in immediate future.
“Not because we want to oppose tax hike, but because we have already been burdened with taxes in such a way that earning anything above daily bread and butter has become extremely difficult for all of us,” said JBOA Secretary and Ranchi Bus Owners Association President Krishna Mohan Singh on Sunday.
The Association in its Working Committee meeting on the day discussed issues about the business in State and measures to be taken to take the business forward ‘in a time when nothing appears to be going smooth and favourable for transporters in the State’ added Singh. Presidents of District Bus Owners Association, office bearers and representatives present in the meeting were unanimous at taking strict actions on any of its member bus owner violating any rule and regulation of State.
Singh pointed out issues like no permanent Motor Vehicle Inspectors (MVIs) in any of the five divisional headquarters in State, failed online taxation system and quality of roads which according to him were badly affecting passenger bus operation in State. “We are going to discuss all these issues with the Government on Monday,” said Singh.
JBOA President Sachchidananda Singh said that the meeting was attended by association members from all 16 districts’ members in State where JBOA is in function. “We primarily discussed about what improvements are required in order to get the passenger bus transport business back on track which has been facing one hiccup after the other from some time. We have also decided not to give government and authorities to blame us for anything. We have also decided to bring rest eight districts under association net. These districts were not separate districts at the time Jharkhand was separated like Ramgarh, Simdega, Khunti and others,” said he.
JBOA expressed concerns over proposed tax hike for passenger bus operation in State. “Despite the fact that we the bus operators in State have been paying exactly same tax for 24 districts which we used to pay for 54 districts when Jharkhand was not a separate State. Moreover, our yearly insurance premium for every single bus has reached up to Rs 1.2 Lakh now which was somewhere around Rs 80,000 couple of years ago. We are paying at least Rs 1,300 as toll tax every day, and it has become increasingly difficult for us to come out of worries of daily bread and butter,” said Krishna Mohan Singh.
JBOA Vice President Sanjay Kumar Pandey said that the Association was going to organise a statewide conference in January last or first week of the February next year. “We are in process of getting the conference inaugurated by Chief Minister Raghubar Das and concluded by Department Minister CP Singh. We will discuss all the issues before industry, Government and other stakeholders during the two-day conference,” said Pandey.