HYDERABAD: The Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (TSRTC) which does not come under the category of ‘bulk buyer’ of diesel has escaped the hike on diesel of Rs 25 per litre, meant for bulk buyers.
Official sources said the TSRTC which has been procuring diesel in retail wouldn’t have any immediate impact following the hike for bulk buyers. Otherwise, the corporation which utilises 20 crore litres each year on an average, would have ended up paying somewhere between Rs 400 crore to Rs 500 crore per annum.
Most of the diesel is now being procured from private bunks and a handful of RTC-owned refuelling stations, which also stopped ordering directly from oil companies.
“It was way back in 2015 when the concessions were removed. As a bulk buyer, the TSRTC was able to save Rs 10 on each litre. Ever since it is procuring at market rate. However, the oil companies gave some leeway till recently. Even this was stopped and now the TSRTC does not have any concessions,” a source said.
As a consequence of buying diesel from private bunks, the workload on workers has gone up. “Since there are long queues at these bunks, the person entrusted with filling up the tank would sometimes have to wait for hours at a stretch. If there are some 50 to 70 buses already in the queue, it may take four to five hours,” he added.