Bengaluru: Less than a fortnight after Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy proposed a hike in fuel prices, the state transport corporations are now contemplating a bus fare hike.
Speaking to reporters here on Wednesday, Transport Minister DC Thammanna said that a proposal on this has been presented before the government.
“A decision on hiking bus fare will be taken by the government after discussions,” he said.
The proposal comes at a time when three -- North Western Karnataka Road Transport Corporation (NWKRTC), North Eastern Karnataka Road Transport Corporation (NEKRTC) and Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) -- out of the four state-owned corporations including Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) are running under loss.
The hike in fuel prices, as announced in the budget on July 5, stands at Rs 1.14 for petrol and Rs 1.12 for diesel. Despite pressure from its coalition partner Congress and former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah writing to the Chief Minister to roll back the hike, HD Kumaraswamy had asserted his decision to hike the price of petrol and diesel by 2%.
The corporations, reeling under a loss of around Rs 600 crore, have proposed a hike of almost 20% in bus fare, News18 Kannada reported.
Earlier in June, the minister had said that the idea was to cut down on expenditure and increase revenue instead of hiking bus fare.
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