Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru (MS)
Bengaluru, Jun 18: The road transport corporations of the state, which are on the verge of asking the state government to sanction funds to pay the salary of the employees, are facing one more uphill task of putting up with the additional financial burden of Rs 70 lac due to the steep rise of diesel prices.
Though the bus services have started after easing of the lockdown, the number of passengers commuting by state transport buses have not crossed even 10 per cent. Nearly 70 per cent of buses are run daily by four transport corporations in the state. The cost of operation is more than the revenue and therefore causing them to run under loss. Now the rise of diesel prices is causing more financial hardship for these corporations.
On average, the four transport corporations, which include KSRTC and BMTC require 15.44 lac litres of diesel. Diesel is being bought from government-owned companies at wholesale price. As the corporations are buying in huge quantity, the oil companies are also giving some rebate in the price. However, the daily increase in the price of diesel has even made the wholesalers increase their prices. So the final impact of this falls on the road transport corporations according to the information shared by a senior KSRTC officer.
The wholesale price of diesel was Rs 63.50 per litre on June 1. On June 16, the price reached Rs 68.20 per litre. This is almost a rise of Rs 4.50 per litre. If the same situation continues, this will cost the state transport corporations an additional financial burden of Rs 69.26 lac per day or Rs 20.78 crore per month.
On one end the corporations have to pay the loans availed by them from financial institutions, while on the other they are incurring losses due to the increased cost of operation as very few people are making use of the transport. There are 1.20 lac employees belonging to four transport corporations and the situation is such that the corporation is running out of funds to pay their salaries. The state government has released special grant to these corporations in the past two months. If the number of passengers using the state transport corporation buses does not increase in the coming months, the corporations will have to ask the government for special funds.