Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

Helping hand to ailing KSRTC

Thiruvananthapuram: Finance Minister T.M. Thomas Isaac has given a big helping hand to the ailing Kerala State Transport Corporation by announcing a restructuring package that envisages writing off tax arrears worth Rs.700 crore and a waiver of interest and penal interest of Rs.153 crore.

Delivering his budget speech in the Assembly on Thursday, Dr. Isaac said the loans given by the government would be converted as share capital. In order to enable the public utility raise commercial loans, the Finance Minister proposed to value the land in KSRTC’s possession, provide title record for it, besides adding it to the assets and liability statement.

The Finance Minister provided an icing to the KSRTC cake by announcing a Rs.25-crore allocation in the current year’s plan to take forward his restructuring proposal.

He said that during the previous government’s regime, the KSRTC was given Rs.5 crore on an average. The non-Plan funds the corporation got during that five-year period was only Rs.20 crore. The LDF government had already given an assistance of Rs.166 crore for 2006-07 and 2007-08.

He said a tripartite memorandum of understanding would be signed between the trade unions, KSRTC management and the government which would contain targets.

He said he hoped to clear the operational losses of the corporation through budget support during the restructuring phase, making it a model of the LDF alternative.

Government guarantees for loans would enable the KSRTC to commission 1,000 buses every year to improve mileage significantly leading to a reduction in annual expenditure by Rs.100 crore.

Buses were now plying on routes where even half the collection was not possible. “Only if a collection of Rs.26 per kilometre is realised can the KSRTC be run on a no-loss- no-profit basis. “We have to find a solution to these problems,” he said.

The Finance Minister said that the oil companies promised price concessions if the existing dues to them were cleared.

He said that commercial complexes would be set up on a BOT basis in prime locations owned by the KSRTC on a revenue-sharing basis, he added.

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