Haryana hikes road tax, PRTC expenses go up

Gagan K Teja

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Tribune News Service

Patiala, September 26

Hike in road tax by the Haryana Government has come as a blow to the Pepsu Road Transport Corporation (PRTC) as their monthly expenses have gone up by over Rs35 lakh.

Before April 1, the Haryana Government charged 20 per cent of the revenue collected from the sale of tickets as road tax from the PRTC after every month. The occupancy of these buses was about 70 per cent and the tax came out to be Rs75 lakh as PRTC buses cover 30,000 km in Haryana every day.

However, as per the new policy, the Haryana Government has started charging road tax of Rs8.84 per km for ordinary buses against 100 per cent occupancy i.e. 52 seats and Rs19.6 per km for deluxe buses, which comes out to be Rs1.1 crore.

On the other hand, the Punjab Government is charging meagre amount from Haryana. At present, while the tax for an ordinary bus is Rs2.75 per km, it is Rs1.66 per km for deluxe buses.

The Haryana Government is charging three times the road tax being charged by Punjab for ordinary buses and the amount is 11 times when it comes to deluxe coaches.

Besides, they have started charging an additional tax of Rs2,385 per month for ordinary buses and Rs2,246 per month for deluxe buses.

Moreover, this amount has to be paid in advance irrespective of whether PRTC plies its buses in Haryana or not due to any circumstances.

The PRTC has even filed an objection with the Haryana Government, but to no avail.

PRTC managing director Manjit Singh Narang said, “The corporation has suspended its plans to expand their routes in Haryana. The PRTC used to pay the road tax as per its occupancy earlier, fixing the amount irrespective of the number of passengers is unjustified.”