Given the high incidence of insurance premium, road and passenger tax levied by various states and staff emoluments, maintenance cost and given the fact that most of the vehicles are underutilised, the margin is under severe pressure. Added to these is the absence of mandatory requirement to order readjustment of passenger fare with reference to the increase or decrease in input cost. This deficiency is always utilised by the States for political considerations. As a result, operators are postponing replacements and continue using vehicles which guzzle precious fuel, polluting the atmosphere which cry for containment. The Government has so far given encouragement to car and two wheeler manufacturers with the result that lines of cars and two wheelers clog the arteries, impeding movements of buses which cater to the masses.
Government seems to have put a premium on personal transportation rather than public transport.
Excise Duty constitutes a major factor in the cost of vehicles and the components used in them. Manufacturers often hike the prices of these products on one pretext or other in the absence of competitors in certain items like Chassis, Fuel Injection Pumps. With excise duty levied on advalorem basis, the central revenue often reaps a bonanza with each increase in the price of the vehicle, vehicle components, fuel, etc. The need for encouraging shift from personal transport to public transport needs no emphasis. However, this will be possible only if there is sufficient growth in public passenger transport and improvement in their availability with good standard and comfort.