Temple tourism takes a beating in Telangana

Illogical taxes deter operators from plying buses between two Telugu states

Hyderabad: Temple tourism has taken a beating in Telangana this festive season as the private tourist operators have been forced to suspend bus services following increased tax being collected by the Road Transport Authorities (RTAs).

This is being the festival season normally travel business witnesses a boom as several buses go from Telangana to Andhra Pradesh. The tour operators ply buses to the temple towns –Tirupati, Srisailam, Vijayawada, Simhachalam, Annavaram and Visakhapatnam.

These are mostly package tours where the travel operators take care of all facilities of pilgrims like boarding, transportation and darshan. According to bus operators’ association leader Sanjiv Reddy, during Dasara season, they run about 150 to 200 buses to various destinations.

After the bifurcation of the state, this year hardly 10 tourist buses from Telangana had been sent to the temple towns in Andhra Pradesh. The main reason for the drastic fall in tour operations is high taxes the operators have to pay. They have to pay Rs 360 per seat as border tax to enter AP.

This has resulted in the cost of the tourist operations getting doubled which has become a dampener and the operators are losing business. Coupled with the border tax, the Telangana government has also been collecting Rs 800 tax per seat every three months from tourist operators putting heavy financial burden on them.

Running tourist buses under these circumstances was impossible for the operators. After the bifurcation of the state, the association prevailed upon the government to issue multiple tax permissions and requested the government to reduce the tax collected from the operators.

But no action has been taken till date, the operators said. Reddy said the buses from Telangana had another disadvantage. He said buses carrying tourists to the temples and other holy places in Kerala and Tamil Nadu have to pay Rs 150 per seat as border tax to enter into the two states.

Whereas the buses plying from AP were exempted from paying the tax as they have an agreement which was entered with AP before the state was bifurcated. The association was demanding the government to provide relief to the Telangana operators also from paying taxes by holding talks with the two governments. The association leaders said they would meet the Chief Minister soon on their demands.

CPM secretary (Greater Hyderabad central city committee) M Srinivas said the drivers and other staff working with the tourist operators had lost their livelihoods after the operators stopped the services. The poor business had also resulted in the operators getting into debt trap. Exemption of the tax collection by Telangana and AP will be the only solution to revive bus tourists operations, he added.