VIJAYAWADA: Even though the state government has allowed private bus operators to resume inter-state services from May 21, they may not put their buses back on the roads till August end after all. Hoping that they will be allowed to increase ticket costs to recover losses, the operators urged the government to give them road tax waiver for the lockdown period.
Speaking to TNIE, Deputy Transport Commissioner (DTC) S Venkateswara Rao said that it was not the first time that the private bus operators had opted to stop their service. “Earlier, they had stopped plying for a month. However, now they are finding it difficult to survive due to the health emergency. So they approached the authorities with their requests a couple of days ago. They told us that they were not in a position to run their buses till September.”
According to information available with the transport department, Andhra Pradesh has around 2,000 contract carriage buses and 1,500 tourist buses. “Since the beginning of a lockdown in March, all private buses stayed away from the roads. At least 30,000 workers, who are directly dependent on the contract carriage buses, have not been paid in the last two months”, G Malli Babu, a bus operator, told TNIE on Monday.
On if the operators were willing to restart the services after August, Babu said, “The fresh guidelines demanding modifications in the seating arrangements so as to encourage social distancing, cannot be followed unless the government allows us to enhance the ticket fare.”
Even after reducing the number of seats to 20 from the existing 40, an operator needs to pay the entire tax amount. “The operators can resume their services only if the government collects tax based on the number of seats available in the modified buses,” he added. The operators are planning to meet Transport Minister Perni Venkataramaiah in the next couple of days and submit a representation seeking relaxation in the road tax, amid resolution of other problems.
V Ravindra Kumar, proprietor of Ravindra Tours and Travels, also urged the government to consider the plight of the bus owners.“Every permit holder has to pay Rs 1,000 per seat for three months as tax. For a 40-seater bus, the total amount comes down to Rs 1.60 lakh at the end of a year. A month ago, the government had deferred payment for the first quarter, but didn’t give any assurance with regard to the tax waiver.”
Meet with Transport Minister soon
Even after reducing the number of seats to 20 from the existing 40, an operator needs to pay the entire tax amount, as per the current guidelines. The private bus operators are planning to meet Transport Minister Perni Venkataramaiah in the next couple of days and submit a representation seeking relaxation in the road tax, amid resolution of other problems