RTC wants a fare regulator

Hyderabad: The Telangana state government is considering a proposal to set up a regulatory commission for the Road Transport Corporation along the lines of the Electricity Regulatory Commission to revise bus fares independently when required. This is because the RTC’s losses are mounting due to the year-long delay in taking a decision on the fare hike by the state government due to political compulsions — primarily the series of bypolls and civic body elections. The APSRTC had increased fares last year by 10 per cent.

The government’s role in revising bus fares would be minimised with the setting up of regulatory commission. The proposal has been sent to the  Chief Minister’s Office for approval. The RTC has suffered losses of nearly '600 crore in 2015-16, mainly due to increase in staff salaries in May 2015, when Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao announced a 44 per cent fitment (basic pay) besides regularising the services of 4,230 contract employees.

The hike was made applicable from June 2014, when the state was formed, forcing the RTC to pay salary arrears of one year. The pay hike benefitted 56,740 employees but imposed a burden of nearly Rs 1,000 crore per year on the RTC. The TSRTC has been desperately trying to persuade the TS government to hike fares by 10-15 per cent since then.

“The RTC management and employees associations have been demanding the setting up of a regulatory commission along the lines of the Electricity Regulatory Commission to revise bus fares without the involvement of the government. The proposal is under the active consideration,” said transport minister, P. Mahender Reddy. He said fare hike would not be the only solution to make RTC profitable and concrete measures were required to improve internal efficiency of the corporation.