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| J&K SRTC losing Rs 3.75 crore monthly; revival plans nowhere in sight | | |
GOPAL GUPTA
EARLY TIMES REPORT
JAMMU, July 19: Contrary to pronouncements of Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, state government has virtually given up on reviving cash starved and loss making Jammu and Kashmir State Road Transport Corporation (JKSRTC).
Even addition of buses on modern lines alongwith increase in the budgetary support has failed to revitalize the department. State government enhanced annual grand-in-aid to Rs. 30 crore for the current financial year 2010-11. However, transport ministry says that plan allocation to corporation was Rs. 5.59 Crore for 2009-10, Rs. 5 crore for 2008-09 which is a meager amount when compared with plan allocation of other states.
They maintain that similar allocation to sister state Corporation viz Himachal Roadways in Himachal Pradesh was around Rs. 41 crore during 2009-10 and Rs. 30 Crore during 2008-09. It assert that tightening of financial resources of the corporation has resulted in pending CP/GP fund liability to the extent of Rs. 32 Crore and gross liabilities to the extent of Rs. l02.11 crore as on April 1, 2009.
Ministry says that corporation is unable to meet these liabilities from its own resources and is completely dependent on the support from government. Besides, such a resource crunch has created sense of frustration among employees in general and is affecting overall performance of the corporation in particular since it has been unable to pay wages to its employees in time, says the ministry.
Jammu and Kashmir government has never compensated the corporation for losses it suffers on account of rendering subsidized transport services freedom fighters, students, disabled with attendants, numberdars and chowkidars. In comparison to this, corporation in Himachal is getting approximately Rs. 60 Crore as cash assistance to make up for similar losses.
Besides this, corporation is earning average revenue of Rs. 3.75 crore per month whereas the average expenditure is around Rs. 7.50 Crore, thus having cash loss of Rs. 3.75 Crore per month which is supplemented by budgetary support provided by the government. Ministry says that vehicle staff ratio of the corporation vis-a-vis its operative fleet is 1:6.7 which results in a deeper cut on the revenues of the corporation as on an average 48 percent of the income is utilized toward salary component.
It further says that corporation has been in a poor state of financial health and could not replace its old fleet. At present owns about 72 percent of the fleet of the corporation is over aged as compared to over-aged ratio in the other STU's of the Country ranging between 20-25 percent. Old vehicles, somehow, are operational but they suffer from higher maintenance cost and frequent break down very high and thus are not even able to meet their operational expenses.
Official records maintain that geographical and security factors are a big deterrent in achieving optimal productivity of the vehicles. At present J&K, SRTC vehicles have a productivity of about 135-145 Kms per vehicle per day. Besides, the corporation has been doing business, mainly with the government agencies, which do not release the payment in a time- bound manner. As a result, on paper, the corporation depicts a healthy liquidity (cash payment), but on ground, it is cash starved.
Due to this time lag between delivery of services and actual payments, ministry says that corporation has to frequently resort to high cost bank loans while adding that these days, even the Banks are shying away from lending over draft to the corporation, because of its poor financial health. It reasons that due to this, private operators have monopolized transportation industry, which has its own negative impacts.
Ministry further says that around 117 vehicles were destroyed during past 15 years of turmoil and from 1989-2001, due to the adverse security scenario in the state, operative fleet of the corporation got reduced by 50 percent.
It is important to mention here that JKSRTC came into existence on September 1, 1976 under Road Transport Corporation Act-1950. Corporation at present owns a commercial fleet of 1077, vehicles comprising of 665 buses, 412 trucks. At present, the Corporation is able to put 550 vehicles only in operation due to over-aged fleet vehicles.
The corporation has 3724 employees on its establishment and is not able to meet even the salary component. Corporation has a glorious past as it monopolized the transport sector in the state with services ranging from cargo to city bus services but over the years especially after 1989, the performance of the corporation started deteriorating on various physical and financial parameters.
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