Apex public transport body to hike fares by 50% from Sept 1

GUWAHATI: The apex transport body of the state, All Assam Motor Transport Association (Aamta), on Monday said fares of all public transport and commercial vehicles is set to increase by 50% across the state from September 1, citing non-operation of vehicles due to the Covid-19 lockdown.
From May 21, there was a ban on inter-district movement of vehicles in the state, which caused a huge loss to those associated with public transport, forcing them to seek government intervention.
Private operators run 20,000 passenger service buses in the state, which provide employment to nearly 10 lakh people. For the last four months, majority of the employees have received either partial or no salary.
“Representatives of our transport association from 25 districts held a meeting at Tezpur on Sunday. We have decided to operate public buses in the state, whenever the government allows, only after increasing the fare by 50%. The hike in passengers' fare has been decided to compensate for the losses that we have incurred during the lockdown,” said Aamta general secretary Pradip Das. The list of demands by the Aamta included waiving of road tax for one year, waiver of quarterly tax on vehicles, increase in bus fares, extension of the insurance and financial relief to transporters due to Covid-19 restriction.
“We have to pay monthly permit tax for the buses. From May, our buses have remained off roads due to the lockdown. We have faced massive losses and don’t have money to pay taxes,” said Das
Another office bearer of Aamta said it would be impossible to run buses at earlier rates amid price hike of essentials. “Last year, the price of petrol per litre was around Rs 70, which is now available at around Rs 90. We also have to bear extra expenditure like buying tyres," a member of the Union said in the meeting.
Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma had said on Thursday that public transport employees have to wait till September 1 as the state is still reporting over 700 fresh Covid-19 cases per day on an average. “We need to be careful and place health above everything else. Fifteen people died yesterday due to Covid. We will see what the situation is in the next 15 days. If we relax the restrictions and the situation aggravates, then there will be restrictions for more than three months again,” the chief minister had said.