The Pink and Saffron way!

Hyderabad: The month of March has been a tough time for the common man as there has been steep increase in fuel prices and LPG followed by hike in electricity charges and bus fares which have been further increased on Monday by adding passenger cess of Rs 5 to Rs 10.

It is being said that the government was mulling to increase water tariff since the cost of pumping water would go up once the new power tariff comes into existence. The fuel prices were increased by about 40 paise on Monday.

The prices were being revised every day for the past six days and are likely to see upward trend for some more days. Petrol prices have gone up to Rs 112 per litre on Monday. The fuel prices were hiked soon after the Assembly elections to the five States were over recently. Official sources said the fuel price hike was necessitated to bail out the oil companies from the compounding losses due to various reasons.

Officials of the State Commercial Taxes department said the increase of fuel prices is helping to increase the revenues generated through VAT collected on the fuel sales. However, the government is not in a mood to reduce VAT on the fuel prices.

Almost at the same time, the State government too started putting additional financial burden on the people by increasing the rates of bus tickets and levying passenger safety cess or Re 1. Now a new cess of Rs 5 to Rs 10 has been introduced with effect from Monday on RTC Metro Express, Deluxe, Super Luxury, Rajdhani, Garuda and Garuda Plus buses. The reason given by the TSRTC for this new cess was to help the cash-strapped corporation to take up passenger amenities like maintenance of bus stations, providing chairs, benches, separate toilets for men and women, fans, reservation counters, cloak room and lighting facilities.

The RTC has also decided to increase bus pass prices from April 1. Ordinary bus pass fare will be increased from Rs 950 to Rs 1,150, Metro Express from Rs 1,070 to Rs 1,300, Metro Deluxe from Rs 1,185 to Rs 1,450, Metro Luxury from Rs 2,000 to Rs 2,400. Regarding NGO bus passes, ordinary fare has been increased from Rs 320 to Rs 400, Metro Express from Rs 450 to Rs 550 and Metro Deluxe from Rs 575 to Rs 700.

Similarly, denizens would have to shell out 50 paise additionally on every unit of electricity they consume from April 1. This increase, the power utilities say, is to help DISCOMs which are in red. By the first week or mid-April, water board too may come up with proposals to hike the water tariff. The citizens feel that both the Centre and State governments are vying with each other in fleecing the common man. This is going to have cascading effect on the prices of essential commodities as well making their lives miserable.