In a bid to revive the government-owned transport corporation, Punjab government under Chief Minister Amarinder Singh, on Wednesday, decided to draft a new state transport policy. One of the features will be a 25 per cent hike in taxes of luxury buses.
When the Shiromani Akali Dal-BJP coalition was in power in Punjab, the state-owned buses were dealt a raw deal. The priority routes and others were both given to the private sector, primarily luxury buses. The result was that the former ran empty, or with very few passengers. And given that they were not allowed to run on peak hours or to popular locations, the financial condition of Punjab state transport corporation was always precarious.
When the scandalous nature of this was taken up with then deputy chief minister Sukhbir Badal, his reply was that there were many private sector bus companies and that they gave employment to many.
What he did not say was that most of them were owned by him and his family members. Badal had also justified a low tax by saying that the ordinary man had the right to travel by luxury buses.
Finance minister Manpreet Singh Badal said that the new policy would be tabled and implemented in two weeks. The hike in taxes of travel could affect the fleet owned by the Badals.
