Maharashtra: Loss-making MSRTC starts to profit, says govt

Subsidies provided to pay staff down to zero

The loss-making Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) has started earning profits, and so has another government undertaking—the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC). Industry Minister Uday Samant told media persons on behalf of Chief Minister Eknath Shinde (who heads both undertakings) that miracles can happen if the minister in charge works on the ground instead of running the office from home. The statement was seen as a barb at ex-CM Uddhav Thackeray.

“The state government-run public transport (ST) service is making a profit in only six states. In Maharashtra, the corporation gets financial help, as and when required, from the government. But in the last two to four years, the ST corporation was running in losses. It did not have enough money to pay the employees their salaries. The Shinde-Fadnavis-Pawar government has successfully pulled the corporation out of such a dire situation,” Samant said.

Uday Samant, industry minister

According to Samant, during the Uddhav Thackeray government, the losses to the corporation kept increasing. “Due to a complete shutdown of traffic during the COVID lockdown period, the ST corporation faced a loss of Rs 6,300 crore between March 2020 and March 2021. During the previous government, when Ajit Pawar was the finance minister, the government decided to pay Rs 300 crore per month for salaries. But after Shinde became CM, a decision to provide free travel to senior citizens (75 years and above) was taken and Rs 100 crore was paid as compensation to ST. Another R180 cr were paid for giving a 50 per cent discount to women passengers. The total compensation amounts to Rs 300-350 cr,” he said.

Of the 31 divisions of the ST service in the state, 18 have registered profits this current year. Beed district is at the top position, followed by Parbhani and Jalgaon, as the second and third, respectively. Meanwhile, the subsidy to be paid by the government for the wages of ST employees has gradually reduced to zero. This means that ST itself has started meeting its expenses,” Samant added.

MSRDC makes money

The MSRDC had a loss of Rs 6-7,000 crore when Shinde took over. It is now a profitable undertaking with a Rs 10,000-12,000 crore surplus.

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