Kochi: Private bus strike on November 15

Kochi: The private bus industry in the state is in a deep crisis with spiralling cost of fuel, spare parts and other expenses like insurance and motor vehicle tax. The Kerala State Private Bus Operators Federation has put forward a series of demands to protect the industry such as fare hike, including students' tickets, stop all travel concessions, implementation of the government decision to increase the period limit of stage carriages from 15 to 20 years, drop sales tax or give concession for diesel, enforce a traffic policy to avoid competition between private and KSRTC buses and provide welfare fund to bus workers.

The Federation office-bearers said that a token strike will be conducted on November 15 by stopping the service.

When the fare was hiked on March 1, the diesel price was Rs 62 per litre which has increased to Rs 81 and is still going up, said Federation office bearers while addressing a press conference here on Monday.

"Despite the increase of Rs. 19 in diesel price, the ticket charges remain the same. Now, a bus owner has to shell out Rs. 6,480 every day for fuel alone. The daily expense for fuel in February 2016, when diesel rate was Rs. 48, was Rs. 3,840 which touched Rs. 6,480 in just two years," said M.B. Sathyan, president of the federation.

The poor condition of roads after the floods has also adversely impacted the industry with the high maintenance cost and increased fuel consumption.

 The federation accused the state and union governments of adopting an apathetic attitude towards escalating fuel price. "The governments are not ready to reduce the tax or cess," they alleged. "The average cost to begin a private bus service was only Rs.10 lakh a decade ago, which has been increased to Rs. 32 lakhs