Within hours of announcing a revision in fares of all air-conditioned buses by up to 10 per cent, the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) retracted its decision on Wednesday after realising that the move may generate negative publicity and may not go down well with the average commuter.
The move, which was in line with the AAP government’s decision to charge service tax on revenue earned by the public transporter’s AC coaches, was retracted on the instructions of Transport Minister Satyendar Jain, said a source.
Service tax
Before the rollback was announced, a senior DTC official had sought to clarify that the hike in ticket cost was not on account of an increase in fare affected by the public transporter, but solely due to the Delhi government’s decision in favour of the payment of service tax on 40 per cent revenue earned by DTC’s AC buses.
“The DTC has not increased its fares at all; the additional cost of tickets will be added to the proceeds of the government and not the DTC,” the official said adding that the fares of non-AC buses would remain unchanged.
In a statement issued by the DTC which it chose to withdraw subsequently, the public transporter had announced that adult commuters opting for AC buses would now be charged Rs. 11 instead of Rs. 10 for commuting up to 4 km and Rs. 27 instead of Rs. 25 for a distance of above 12 km while travelling within the city.
Two state ments
Non-adult passengers would, similarly, pay Rs. 6 instead of Rs. 5 and Rs. 14 instead of Rs. 13 as fare for journeys falling in the two distance slabs respectively.
“It is apprised that consequent upon the decision of the government for payment of services tax on 40 per cent revenue earned by AC buses of DTC, it has been decided to charge new AC bus fare with immediate effect,” the DTC's initial statement had said.
This, however, was followed by another statement in which the DTC said, “This press release sent (earlier) today regarding service tax on DTC AC buses be treated as withdrawn.”
Fares of DTC’s Airport Express Bus Service too, the same statement had said, were supposed to have been revised with a minimum fare of Rs. 27 from the earlier Rs. 25 and the maximum at Rs. 106 instead of Rs. 100. Similarly, passengers travelling up to 5 km in the Noida region would have to shell out Rs. 11 against Rs. 10 and a maximum fare of Rs. 53 instead of Rs. 50 for travelling beyond 20 km.
The fare of the Express Service, which runs on routes on the Outer Ring Road, had also been increased from Rs. 30 to Rs. 32, while travelling up to 26 km and above in Gurgaon and Faridabad was to cost passengers Rs. 64 instead of Rs. 60.
