Tamil Nadu Government Hikes Bus Fares, Power Tariff & Milk Prices

Tamil Nadu Govt. has decided to Increase Bus fares, power tariff and milk prices to mop up an additional annual revenue of over Rs. 10000 crore. The Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalitha announced the decision to increase prices after chairing the cabinet meeting on Thursday.

The Tamil Nadu CM in her address televised on a private channel, a transcript of which was later released to other media, dwelt at length the financial crisis shrouding the organizations concerned- Tami Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation (TANGEDCO), a successor entity of the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board (TNEB); State Transport Corporations and the Tamil Nadu Co-operative Milk Producers’ Federation (AAVIN). “If these public sector undertakings, lying on the death bed, are not given ‘oxygen’ now, they will become totally dysfunctional,” she said.
Even after the revision, the bus fares and the milk price would be lower than those in other southern states, Ms Jayalalitha pointed out.
Following are the indicators of proposed price hike:
Bus fare- Mofussil (28p to 42p /km) Express (32p to 56p/km) super deluxe (38 to 60p/km ) ultra deluxe (52p to 70p/km)

The minimum bus ticket price in urban areas other than Chennai would go up from Rs.2 to 3, and the maximum would be Rs.12 instead of Rs.7. In Chennai too, the minimum fare would go up to Rs.3 and the maximum would be Rs.14 instead of Rs.12.

Milk Price- The price of toned milk per liter would be revised from Rs 17.75 to Rs. 24. The procurement price of milk paid to dairy farmers would go up from Rs.18 to Rs liter for cow milk and from Rs 26 to Rs.28 for buffalo milk.

Power tariff-Sources say that the increase in the power tariff is, on an average, expected to be Rs 1.50 per unit for different sections of consumers. It will fetch Rs 8000 crore in a year to the cash starved power utility.

The power utility would file a petition before the Tamil Nadu Electricity Regulatory commission (TNERC) which would hold public hearings before fixing the new tariff. The manner in which the announcement on price hike was made was itself a novelty as Ms Jayalalitha used Jaya TV to announce her government’s decisions around 3.30pm. Minutes later, the government released the text of her address to the media.