Relax payments, movement

Sarab Jit Singh, Managing Director at Travelite India and KTC India, has written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi highlighting the hardships faced by tourist transport operators in the wake of COVID-19, while also suggesting simple measures the government could take to help the sector out.

Respected Sir,

Pandemic has brought tourism to a naught. Tourist transport operators are facing unprecedented hardship due to no business and heavy financial commitments.

Temporary relief on payment of instalments till 31st August 2020 has only delayed the inevitable. Operators will face the reality when payment of instalments will begin. With no financial support from Government, operators are compelled to sell their fleet at half the price as there are very few takers. A large number of drivers and staff members have been retrenched as operators cannot afford to pay salaries without any revenue, turning large number of people jobless.

One can understand government’s inability to help tourist transport operators financially because of financial constraints, but there are certain steps that can be taken by Government at this juncture, which will help survival of some of the operators despite this entire ordeal:

1. Due to lockdown and other restrictions, tourist vehicles are not allowed to operate and the transport offices are also closed. Therefore, Government has extended the validity of all vehicle documents till 30th September 2020.

We request that the validity of the following vehicle documents be extended for one year without payment of any fee or tax or parking charges. The extension should be from the last date of the validity of each vehicle document:

1. Permit
2. Fitness Certificate
3. Annual Tax
4. Parking fee (wherever applicable)

The extension should be granted automatically, so that operators are not required to queue up at transport offices, where they are harassed and fleeced.

2. Ministry of Road Transport and Highways vide its notification no. S.O.1522(E) dated 6th April 2018 has
   notified speed limit permitted for various types of vehicles on roads.

The speed limit should be same for all vehicles in each category. There should not be any differentiation between private and tourist taxis.  This disparity has created lot of problems to the traffic on road, as well as operators who are running from pillar to  post to get speed governors for such vehicles models where the speed governors are not even manufactured. The operators are also receiving over-speed challans for driving @ 43 Kms p/h in the city of Delhi.

3. Free movement of tourist vehicles across India should be allowed on payment of annual fees as presently done in the case of goods transport. The tax structure should be derived in such a manner that the tax
   implications for tourist vehicles is not more than double than that of goods transport vehicles.

We sincerely hope that the request made above will be considered and accepted in the interest of survival and revival of tourist transport sector in India.