Mumbai: The school bus owners’ association has declared a 20% hike in the school bus fee from the next academic year, citing rise in various taxes and new regulations.
“Each bus incurs an monthly expenditure of around ₹two lakh, which includes spendings on personnel, fuel, rise in insurance costs, vehicle fitness certifications, and rise in labour costs. Even if we levy a monthly charge of about ₹1,300 per student, the income comes to around ₹1. 17 lakh, at the rate of 90 students per bus. Even then we run at a loss of ₹83,860 per bus. A new law makes it mandatory to pay ₹9,000 for unskilled labours like conductors. Even if we took a 20% hike, we would still be facing a loss of about ₹23,000. How long can we bear such a huge loss?” said Anil Garg, president of the School Bus Owners Association.
The association represents the interests of various bodies that operate about 48,000 school buses across the State. “We are not seeking a hike, we are declaring it because we can’t take it any more. We have been informing schools, and the hike comes into effect from the new academic term starting April and June,” he said.
Arundhati Chavan, president of the Parent Teacher Association United Forum, said, “Ideally, bus fee hikes are to be presented and cleared by a school committee comprising principal, parents, bus contractor, and road transport department officials. But, many schools don’t have even the committee. The schools don’t want to take the transport responsibility of students and prefer to look the other way; RTO officials are least bothered.”
Parents are upset at one more hike. Namita Jha, a mother of two school-going children in a private school, said, “I shell out ₹1,700 monthly per child. I am already fed up with paying such a high fee that I am thinking of sending my child in a smaller private van, which could cost me around ₹800-1000 per child.”
