The steep hike in petrol and diesel prices has dealt a severe blow to the Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation (APSRTC), which is now pinning all hopes on budgetary support from the government to emerge out of the deep financial crisis.
“The RTC is in deep financial trouble. The price of diesel was ₹48 in October 2015, the last time when the fares were revised, and now it has increased to ₹79,” says N.V. Surendra Babu, Vice-Chairman and Managing Director of the corporation.
The government is not ready to give the green signal for fare hike as it “does not want to burden the common man”. The fleet of buses owned by the RTC consume 30 crore litres of fuel a year. “Increase of each rupee will add ₹30 crore to the financial burden,” says Mr. Babu.
In the last financial year, the APSRTC incurred an additional financial burden of ₹360 crore. “This year, till now we have incurred a burden of ₹368 crore in the last five and half months, ₹8 crore more than what was spent last year by this time. If the prices remain like this, our additional financial burden will touch ₹400 crore,” he says.
He said an extra burden of ₹900 crore on account of fuel and another ₹750 crore due to pay revision, a total of ₹1,600 crore to ₹16,500 crore would be the added burden on the already ailing organisation.
