The steep hike in fuel (petrol and diesel) prices at one go has come in for sharp criticism from all quarters. The price of petrol was hiked by Rs. 3.38 per litre and diesel by Rs. 2.67 a litre on Wednesday.
The increase, reversing a two-month declining trend, has caught the common man off guard. The AP State Road Transport Corporation (APSRTC) is one of the worst sufferers of this hike as it imposes an additional burden of over Rs. 75 crore on the public transport giant annually. But the RTC does not have any plans to implement immediate fare hike.
The RTC is reeling under serious financial crisis due to accumulated revenue losses over the years. In the last couple of years, it has initiated a series of measures to wriggle out of the economic chaos and put the organisation back on rails.
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The hike has added to the monetary woes as the RTC is not in a position to increase the fares immediately. “Without taking up the matter for discussion with the Government, we can’t think of any such plans. It is indeed a fact that APSRTC is under severe financial pressure which has necessitated us to think of innovative means to generate revenue through various other means,” said N. Sambasiva Rao, Vice-President and Managing Director of the Road Transport Corporation.
The RTC operates a fleet of 12,390 buses in the 13 districts which consume around 7.45 lakh litres of fuel every day. With a hike of Rs. 2.79 (after local taxes), the organisation would incur a daily expenditure of Rs. 20.76 lakhs. The amount escalates to over Rs. 6 crore per month and further goes up to over Rs. 75 crore annually.
Though the situation warrants a hike in bus fares to tide over the crisis, the transport corporation management wants to keep it as its last resort.
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