RTC Diesel cess pushes up bus fare

By Our Special Correspondent

The Andhra Pradesh state road Transport Corporation has decided to levy Diesel cess ranging from Rs 2 to Rs 10 per passengers to at least partially cover the huge losses on account of the steep increases in the price of diesel. Customers will have to pay extra Rs 2 for palle velugu service, Rs 5 for metro, express and Rs 10 for AC bus service. A Minimum fare of Rs 15 has been fixed for palle velugu service, a hike of Rs 5. This includes diesel cess of Rs 2 and Rs 1 safety cess. Except the base fare on rural palle velugu and city bus service the RTC decided not to ehance the passengers fares though a 32 percent hike was required to cover the losses corporation managing director Ch Dwaraka Tirumala Rao said here on Wednesday.

Addressing the media along with APSRTC Chairman A Malikharjuna Reddy on Wednesday, Rao explained that the corporation is not in a position to bear the burden caused due to the continuous rise in fuel prices. He clarified that the hike in tickets price is due to an imposition of diesel cess and that it has nothing to do with revising fares. Tirumala Rao said that the public transporter suffered a revenue loss of whopping Rs 5680 crore in last two years because of Covid-19. At the same time rates of tyres and other bus components also went up. All this has become unbearable for the corporation and only under inevitable circumstances we have decided to levy diesel cess without increasing the passenger’s fares. The RTC would earn Rs 720 crores per annum from diesel cess but that’s peanuts he observed.