BMTC loses Rs. 650 crore in revenue as fares remain static

Bengaluru: The 2024 audit report, which has revealed that the financial condition of BMTC has not improved due to non-increase in fares, has said that it has lost Rs 649.74 crore in potential traffic revenue due to non-revision of fares since 2014. The BMTC perfor-mance audit report was presented in the assembly. The report revealed many as-pects of the problems in BMTC’s financial management.

Accordingly, the earnings per km of the corporation’s buses are less than the costs. Accordingly, the operating cost ratio increased from 133.59 percent in 2017-18 to 222.62 percent in 2021-22. Of this, staff costs are 60 percent and fuel costs are 27 percent. Meanwhile, due to non-revision of fares since 2014, expected traffic revenue of Rs 649.74 crore has been lost. In addition, the state government is providing subsidy for concessional bus passes to senior citizens, students and other passengers, so the government has not been able to provide assistance to BMTC.

Due to inadequate maintenance of buses at BMTC units, the performance of buses’ engines, batteries and spare parts has been adversely affected. The audit report mentions that the company is dependent on KSRTC for the purchase of some spare parts, overhaul of engines and fuel injection pumps. All this has led to the financial collapse of BMTC, andto rectify this, the government should provide budgetary sup-port from time to time and refund the government’s share in concessional bus pass schemes, the report suggests.

The corporation’s investigation team has collected a fine of Rs 17.96 lakh from 8,891 passengers who were travelling in BMTC buses without obtaining tickets for the last 3 months. The corporation’s investigation team regularly inspects buses to find out passengers who are travelling in BMTC buses without obtaining tickets and causing leakage of the corporation’s revenue.

Accordingly, a total of 57,219 trips were inspected in August, September and October and 8,891 ticketed passengers were found. In addition to collecting the ticket price from those passengers, a fine of Rs 17.96 lakh was collected for ticketless travel. Al-so, 5,268 cases have been registered against conductors forfailing to issue tickets to passengers.