Last Updated on March 31, 2021 at 3:54 pm
The UT administration is continuously pushing more public funds as government-owned Jammu and Kashmir State Road Transport Corporation (SRTC) is making losses every year.
Recent report of CAG states that even though 20 per cent ‘Paid up Share Capital’ increased from Rs 204.74 crore in 2014-15 to Rs 245.57 crore in 2018-19, JKSRTC faced a 33 per cent increase in accumulated losses from Rs 1,229.56 crore to Rs 1,639.01 crore which shows that public funds infused by the government were not efficiently used by officials.
The operating revenues went down from Rs 83.09 crore in 2014-15 to 79.71 crore in 2018-19 and it formed around 58 per cent of total receipts from 2014 to 2019. Report notes that the non-plan grants sanctioned by the J&K Government declined 16 percent. It decreased from Rs 35.54 crore in 2014-15 to Rs 30.00 crore in 2018-19 and consisted of about 23 per cent of total receipts received during the period from 2014 to 2019.
Government also provided loans to JKSRTC which were not repaid as the corporation was running in losses. The report pointed out that the corporation lacks a long term plan for its revival.
From 2014-15 to 2017-18, a shortfall in achievement of targets of operative fleet and revenue collection targets was found to be between 28 per cent to 33 per cent and 31 per cent and 37 per cent. The corporation suffered an overall shortfall of Rs 165.22 crore in revenue during the period from 2014-15 to 2017-18.
JKSRTC also failed to improve availability of vehicles as overall fleet strength from 2014-15 to 2018-19 decreased by 133 vehicles even though 142 vehicles were added during the same period.
Reports says that from 2014-15 to 2018-19, Fleet Operations ranged between 51 per cent and 59 per cent and detention of vehicles in workshop ranged from 29 per cent to 44 per cent. Moreover, an increase was noticed in idle vehicles from five percent in 2014-15 to 19 per cent in 2018-19.
When records were analysed then it was revealed that there was an excess detention of vehicles in workshops which greatly affected the revenue generation by Rs 135.88 crore from 2014-15 to 2018-19.
