Pune Bus Owners Association submits demand letter to governing authority

Pune, June 9, 2020: As the 3-month lockdown has taken its toll on the transportation business, the Pune Bus Owners Association, Pune, which has incurred heavy losses has put forth several demands to the governing authority to help and facilitate the bus operators by waiving off several taxes and extending motor insurance cover.

The association, which has several tourist bus, car, taxi and school bus operators under its wings on Tuesday submitted a letter to Deepak Mhaisekar, Pune divisional commissioner, Ajit Shinde, regional transport officer (RTO), Pune and MLA Siddharth Shirole in presence of Prasanna Patwardhan of Bus Operator Confederation of India, Balasaheb Khedekar of Pune District Luxury Bus Owners Association, Rajan Junawne, Kiran Desai and Dinesh Sonawne of Pune Bus Owners Association, Anna Gaikwad, Anna Baglane, Deepak Kalapure and Balasaheb Borate of Pimpri-Chinchwad Bus Owners Association.

Asserting that transportation it is a crucial and important lifeline of the city as it caters to common man, students and corporate employees, the 3-month lockdown due to the COVID 19 pandemic has resulted in a complete breakdown of the business, which as a result, has triggered heavy losses to the tourist bus, car, taxi and school bus operators whose drivers, cleaners and office staff have been rendered jobless.

As per the letter, in Maharashtra there are around 95,000 to 1 lakh tourist buses with about 1.5 lakh drivers and cleaners and the tour operators have to regularly pay tax, road tax and petrol tax to the governing authority, which amounts to about 4,500 crore per year. The bus owners while buying a bus also has to pay 18 % GST to the government as tax.

The association has demanded that as the lockdown has been eased and the transportation will again hit the road, the road tax, which the government collects, should be waived off for the next one year. As the operators are facing monetary losses, the motor vehicle insurance should also be increased for the next 6 months. The association wants the authority to declare the association staff as Corona Warriors and give them an insurance of 50 lakh and also the interest charged by the banks on loans should be waived off for six months. It has also demanded that the government should offer a relief package to luxury bus owners and other operators.

The association has said that if the demands are not met in 7 days, then each bus operator will protest by parking their buses in front of collector office and Pune RTO.