HYDERABAD: The Telangana government appears all set to increase both the RTC bus fare and power tariff soon. At a meeting on Tuesday, Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao directed Transport Minister Puvvada Ajay Kumar and Energy Minister G Jagadish Reddy to place the necessary proposals at the next Cabinet meeting on the measures to bail out the loss-making Telangana State Road Transport Corporation and power utility.
During a meeting on RTC at Pragathi Bhavan on Tuesday, the Chief Minister said that despite the State government’s efforts in the last two years, the RTC could not recover from losses due to Covid-19 and hike in diesel price. Rao, however, assured that the government would support the corporation by making all-out efforts.
RTC officials brought the Chief Minister up to speed about the worrying state of affairs by pointing to the steep increase in diesel price by Rs 22 per litre in the last one-and-half years. Thus, the burden on the Road Transport Corporation had risen by Rs 550 crore. Besides, diesel price, the prices of spare parts like tyres, tubes etc had increased, the officials said. Because of these additional expenses, the RTC had to bear an additional expense of Rs 600 crore every year. The lockdown-induced revenue loss was around Rs 3,000 crore, they said.
“Unless the government permits us to increase the bus fares, the future of RTC is bleak,” the officials told the Chief Minister. Besides increasing the fares, other revenue mobilisation sources too should be explored, they suggested. Responding to this, Rao assured that the government would take all measures to protect the RTC.
During the meeting, Energy Minister G Jagadish Reddy and TS Transco and Genco chairman and MD D Prabhakar Rao also informed the Chief Minister that like all other sectors, the power sector too had incurred losses due to Covid.
They said that the power tariff was not increased in the last six years and requested Rao to increase the same. He said that the next Cabinet meeting would discuss and take suitable decisions on both RTC and the power sector.The Chief Minister directed the Transport and the Energy Ministers and the officials concerned to place their proposals before the Cabinet.
Moving forward
Decision likely in next Cabinet meeting
The RTC incurs losses of Rs 90 crore per month in Hyderabad alone. As many as 97 RTC depots are in losses
RTC officials reminded the CM that the government had announced an increase in bus fares in March, 2020, but Covid halted the plan
Energy Minister, Transco MD point out that power tariff has stayed the same for 6 years and ask CM to hike the same