TSRTC imposes diesel cess' on its tickets

Hyderabad: The TSRTC on Friday imposed a 'diesel cess' on its tickets, saying it was unable to bear the burden of the hike in fuel prices. The corporation had recently hiked bus pass tariff and had imposed ‘amenity cess’.

The cess will be Rs. 2 per passenger for Palle Velugu and city services, Rs 5 for express, deluxe, super luxury, city metro express and AC services. The cess comes into effect from Saturday.

The TSRTC said that the abnormal increase in diesel prices had forced the corporation to introduce  the cess. It said the corporation consumes around 6 lakh litres of high speed diesel each day.

About 10 days ago the RTC, has increased the 'amenity cess', to maintain chairs, benches, separate toilets for ladies and gents. The amenity cess ranged Rs 1 to Rs 5 for Vennela, express and deluxe bus services and up to Rs 10 for Rajadhani, Garuda and Garuda Plus services

Prior to that it had increased bus pass tariff by Rs 200 to Rs 500 for various categories of commuters.

The price of diesel had gone up by Rs 35 per litre since December 2021, it said. From Rs 83 per litre four months ago, diesel now cost Rs 118 per litre for bulk users. This had driven up its expenditure and impacted its earnings.

The corporation said in a statement that it had been trying to manage despite the increased prices of diesel but was forced to increase the fares.