Passengers may have to shell out more to travel by government-run buses. The Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) has approached the State government seeking a fare hike of 15% citing increased operational costs, and submitted a proposal to the government last week.
This is contrary to the stand taken by Transport Minister D.C. Thammanna. After assuming charge, he had announced that the new government will put on hold fare revision at least for a year.
Principal Secretary (Transport Department) B. Basavaraju said: “A proposal has been received from the KSRTC and other corporations seeking fare revision. We are scrutinising the file. The Minister will be apprised of the development in the coming days.”
A KSRTC official justified the move saying the transport corporations in the State are under financial distress because of growing operational expenses. “The fuel expenditure alone contributes 40% of the operational cost and increased salary of the staff is also adding more burden. Now, a formal submission has been made to the State government seeking a hike of 15% in fares after working out various modalities.”
The official added that the last fare revision was done in April 2014 and no upward revision has been made thereafter.
BMTC to follow
Other State transport corporations too are expected to follow suit. The Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) has decided to approach the State government seeking a revision. Managing Director of BMTC V. Ponnuraj said that officials are working on the modalities. “We will also approach the State government seeking revision to come out of the financial distress. Last financial year, the corporation incurred a loss of ₹217 crore. The State government has come to the aid by providing ₹100 crore subsidy and we are also trying to source revenue from other sources.”
Extra burden
Recent increase of cess on fuel by the government to source more revenue to meet farm loan waiver expenses has also hit the cash-strapped corporation. The State government has increased the cess by ₹1.14 per litre of diesel.
The move has forced KSRTC to spend additional ₹2 crore to ₹ 2.5 crore on fuel. The KSRTC consumes over 6 lakh litres of diesel per day to operate buses.
BMTC is spending close to ₹1 crore per month on fuel owing to increased cess on diesel, officials said.
Mr. Thammanna was not available for comment.