Bhubaneswar: After Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman hiked tax on diesel and petrol in the Budget that was presented on July 5, the Odisha Government on Thursday hiked the bus fares across all categories.
As per a notification issued by the Commerce and Transport Department, fares of ordinary and express buses were hiked by one paise per km while fares of deluxe and AC deluxe buses were increased by two paise per km.
The bus fare of ordinary category was hiked to 69 paise from 68 paise per km, and the express bus will charge 72 paise against 71 paise per km. Similarly, the fare of deluxe category was increased to 99 paise from 97 paise and AC deluxe to Rs 1.21 from Rs 1.19 per km, respectively.
The State Government hiked the fares under the automatic fare adjustment mechanism following the increase in fuel prices.
In 2017, the State Government had introduced the automatic fare revision mechanism under which the fare of passenger buses plying across Odisha will be decided automatically as soon as the price of fuel rises or falls.
As per the mechanism, fare for ordinary and express buses will be costly by one paise per km if the price of diesel is hiked by Rs 2 per litre. The fare of ordinary and express buses will be slashed by one paise per km if the price of diesel is reduced by Rs 2 per litre.
