AP’s border tax hits TS bus operators hard

Cabs and bus operators’ association threatens to stop services if the issue is not resolved immediately

Hyderabad: The Telangana State Cabs and Bus Operators’ Association (TSCBOA) has strongly condemned the imposition of border tax by the Andhra Pradesh government on contract carriage vehicles entering that State.

Speaking to media persons after an emergency meeting of bus operators at LB Nagar here on Sunday, TSCBOA president Syed Nizamuddin said the bus operators of Telangana State were badly hurt due to the collection of border tax by the AP government. The Telangana operators were already paying road tax of Rs 893 per seat.

Now the AP government had imposed border tax of Rs 330 per seat. Therefore, an operator was being forced to pay an extra tax of nearly Rs 8,000 for a 22-seater bus per single trip, he said. “This additional burden of Rs 8,000 per bus per trip has badly hurt our industry. None of us is able to operate our buses to Andhra Pradesh as we cannot shift the additional burden on our passengers,” he said.

Nizamuddin said that most of the contract carriage vehicles depended on tourism, mostly religious tourism, and nearly 5,000 buses were operated to destinations like Tirupati, Srisailam, Sri Kalahasti, Kanaka Durga Temple of Vijayawada and Mantralayam. Therefore, the entire travel and tourism industry would be badly hit if immediate measures were not taken by both AP and Telangana governments, he said.

In its meeting, the TSCBOA came up with some suggestions and demands. They demanded that Telangana government slash road tax to help the operators. The present tax of Rs 893 per seat was fixed during the united Andhra Pradesh and it was meant for all 23 districts. Despite bifurcation, the Telangana government continued with the old rates and did not reduce them by dividing them into 10 districts.

If the tax is proportionately divided into 10 districts, instead of 23, then the operators of contract carriage vehicles will have to pay only about Rs 390 per seat.Similarly, the AP government is collecting border tax of Rs 330 per seat for a period of seven days. Instead, the tax should be collected on day-to-day basis.

The TSCBOA reminded that there was no border tax for contract carriage vehicles for entry into Tamil Nadu and Kerala as per an agreement the Southern States had with the erstwhile united Andhra Pradesh government. After the formation of Telangana, the agreement stood valid only for the AP government, while the operators from Telangana were being forced to pay the border tax, Nizamuddin said.

Therefore, the Telangana government should join the agreement to help the travel industry, he added. Nizamuddin said that the operators would again meet on May 2 to decide the future course of action. He threatened that all bus operators would launch a massive agitation and stop their operations if both the Telangana and AP governments did not resolve their demands on immediate basis.