Fuel price hike hits RTC hard, may lose ` 680 cr

Employees’ demand for increase in wages adds to woes

The steep hike in diesel price has pushed up the fuel bill of the TS Road Transport Corporation to `1,194 crore against `1,070 crore in 2017. The increasing financial burden on account of fuel and salaries for staff has pushed the corporation into deep losses amounting to an expected `680 crore this year, raising serious concerns about its financial viability.

Despite this backdrop, the staff is demanding a pay hike on par with government employees and has been threatening to go on strike if their demand is not met.

Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao has expressed the government's inability to hike salaries for RTC staff and asked the employees' unions to decide for themselves whether they want the government to run RTC or close it down.

A year ago, in June 2017, diesel price was `59.35 per litre. Diesel is now sold for `73.63, an increase of `14.28 per litre.

The RTC had to spend 21.48 per cent of its earnings on fuel alone in 2017, which has increased to 22.63 per cent in 2018, due to the diesel price hike. More than half of its earning goes towards the payment of salaries of the staff. In 2017, the RTC had to spend 52.39 per cent of its total earnings on salaries alone and in 2018, it has increased to 50.91 per cent.

The state government had increased the salaries of the RTC staff in 2015. The enhanced burden on account of increased salaries and diesel price hike has further deteriorated the financial condition of TSRTC.

Though the government is providing funds to TSRTC through various sources and standing as guarantor to secure loans from banks and financial institutions, the corporation has been unable to come out of the red due to increased operational costs.

In 2015-16, RTC earned `4,233 crore but expenditure incurred was `4,982 crore. The same trend was witnessed in 2016-17 and 2017-18. The salaries for staff in Telangana state are higher than is paid in Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh, Kerala and Tamil Nadu.

The RTC had recorded losses of ` 401 crore in 2014-15, `776 crore in 2015-16 and `749 crore in 2017-18. The losses are estimated to come down to ` 680 crore this year, due to funds and loans provided by the government and financial institutions.

However, the hike in diesel prices over the past year has once again pushed the RTC into deep crisis.