If you use the bus as a mode of transportation this summer, your summer vacation plans and trips to friends and family will be costly. From the end of April or the beginning of May, the Akhil Gujarat Pravasi Vahan Sanchalak Mahamandal (AGPVSM) has agreed to raise bus ticket costs by 15% to 17%.
The decision was made after diesel prices reached Rs 100 per litre and CNG rates reached Rs 82 per litre. In the previous 17 days, diesel prices have risen by roughly Rs 10 per litre, while CNG prices have risen by around Rs 12 per kilogramme.
According to AGPVSM sources, the association has summoned a meeting of its core committee to formalise the ticket fee hike and notify its members.
This means that a two-way trip between Ahmedabad and Rajkot will cost between Rs900 and Rs1200, up from Rs800 to Rs1000 now.
Bus operators, according to AGPVSM President Meghi Khetani, are highly burdened by state taxes such as RTO and the Rs 9 per kilometre toll tax, among others, which add to the cost. “In addition, the recent increase in CNG and diesel costs has made it harder for us to cover our overheads,” Khetani explained. He stated that they have agreed to raise the ticket fee by 15% to 17%. “We’ve scheduled a meeting for next week, and the price increase will go into effect around the end of April or the beginning of May,” he stated.
The bus companies said that the price increase was necessary because there had been no price increases in the previous four years because tour operators had not passed on the cost due to the Covid problem. In Gujarat, there are 8000 private buses, 3000 of which are in Ahmedabad.
Apart from the price hikes in diesel and CNG, other associated products such as bus tyres and AdBlue, among others, have grown more expensive due to inflation, according to Lalit Sukhwani, director of Mahasagar Travels Ltd. “We had been absorbing the price increase for the past two years (because to COVID), but we can no longer do so.” We will have to execute a price increase even if the association does not declare one,”
Even the state government, according to the owner of another bus firm in Gujarat, is unconcerned about the impact of inflation on the general populace. “If they were concerned, they could have eliminated the 5% GST on ticket pricing that the passenger is responsible for,” he remarked. He claims that by rationalising state and toll fees, ticket prices may be reduced. “The government is only concerned with filling its own coffers.” “Many bus operators will be put out of business if this continues,” he said.