Hyderabad: Telangana is set for an increase in TSRTC ticket fares and powercharges. Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao on Tuesday advised transport minister Puvvada Ajaykumar and energy minister G. Jagadish Reddy to submit hike proposals to the state cabinet.
The CM said these proposals will be discussed in the next cabinet meeting and a decision on the quantum of hike would be taken.
Rao held a meeting with the ministers and officials at Pragathi Bhavan, when they explained to him that TSRTC and TS discoms were reeling under serious financial crises due to non-revision of tariffs for long. They pleaded for an immediate hike in the charges, a media release issued by the Chief Minister's Office (CMO) said .
They told CM that power charges were last hiked in April 2015 while the RTC fares in December 2019.
TSRTC chairman Bajireddy Goverdhan and managing director V.C. Sajjanar informed CM that diesel prices went up by Rs 22 per litre during the last one-and-a-half years. This imposed an additional annual burden of Rs 550 crore on the RTC.
He said the prices of tyres, tubes and other spare parts also increased significantly, pushing RTC into further losses. This caused an additional burden of '600 crore per year.
The officials said RTC suffered losses of nearly Rs 3,000 crore due to Covid and subsequent lockdowns and restrictions, adding that the Hyderabad region alone was incurring a loss of Rs 90 crore per day. They said all the 97 bus depots were running in losses.
They reminded the CM of his statement in the legislative assembly in March 2020 of the government's plans to increase bus fares but this was not done due to the Covid-spread.
Unless the charges are hiked, it's difficult to sustain TSRTC due to increased operational costs and Covid losses, the government release quoted the officials as saying.
Energy minister Jagadish Reddy and Transco CMD Prabhakar Rao brought to the CM's notice the huge losses incurred by TS Discoms due to non-revision of tariffs for the last six years and due to the Covid situation. They urged the CM to hike power charges to help Discoms tide over the losses.
