Hyderabad: The fares of Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (TSRTC) buses are likely to go up in the near future as the corporation may incur Rs. 350 cr loss during the current year due to rise in diesel cost.
The TSRTC officials released their latest assessment after reviewing the current situation faced by the Corporation. To offset the losses, there is no other option available to the RTC except to increase the bus ticket fares.
RTC is already running in loss and it is delaying its staff salaries by two weeks.
After the un-lock, the RTC buses started plying with half the strength of passengers to maintain social distancing. However, the services are fully restored now.
There are 9,754 buses plying in districts and cities of Telangana state. The RTC requires around 200 crore litre diesel annually. If the diesel supplied to RTC is exempted from VAT, Excise and other duties, the Corporation could be saved from the losses.
The Telangana Government had initiated a number of measures to save RTC from incurring losses, but due to the lockdown, the situation became critical.
According to the RTC officials, the state government had been informed about the likely losses.
It is said that the state government would take measures to mitigate RTC’s loses. The proposal to increase ticket fares is under consideration to save RTC from facing losses.