HYDERABAD: One of the major contributors of revenue to the State exchequer, the Regional Transport Authority (RTA) is facing the impact of Covid-19 with registrations and transactions reporting low numbers. According to RTA officials, as the lockdown is implemented from 10 am, and their unit offices open at the same time, most of the vehicle users don’t visit RTA offices for learner’s license, vehicle registration and other transactions.
This has been denting the Transport Department’s revenue for the last three days. On an average, RTA earns more than Rs 10 crore each day. In the Greater Hyderabad region alone, over 3,000 apply for a learning license each day.Speaking to Express, C Ramesh, Joint Transport Commissioner (IT & Vigilance), said that revenue generation in RTA has slowed down since April after Covid-19 second wave began.
“Covid-19 has already impacted department revenue in April and the efffect would be more in this month due to lockdown. We hope the revenue picks up next month. Following this kind of situation, we witnessed overall revenue dropping sharply in the last financial year,” Ramesh said.As per the data with the Transport Department, RTA has generated a revenue of Rs 3,228 crore during 2020-21 and witnessed a drop of Rs 287 crore when compared to previous financial year. In 2019-20, RTA has earned Rs 3,515 crore.
Usually, RTA revenue goes up each year as more vehicle registrations take place and this leads to addition of higher life taxes and quarterly taxes. The main revenue sources to RTA happen to be in the form of life taxes and quarterly taxes in addition to fees, services and detection charges.
City RTC services earning a mere Rs 15 lakh/day
As the State government has permitted RTC to run buses for four hours from 6 am to 10 am, the revenue of RTC has hit rock bottom to a mere Rs 15 lakh in Greater Hyderabad Zone.Speaking to Express, V Venkateshwarlu, Executive Director (Greater Hyderabad Zone), said that the daily revenue which was over Rs 3 crore in the city has dropped to Rs 1 crore from the day that night curfew was imposed and the overall revenue has now drastically dropped to Rs 15 lakh since lockdown. According to officials, at present RTC is operating around 700 buses in the city and registering occupancy of close to 20 per cent. Before lockdown and night curfew, RTC used to operate 2,800 buses in the Greater Hyderabad region.