"Each bus has been given exemption of Rs 0.3 million custom duty by government under this scheme", sources told Business Recorder on Tuesday. As a total of 300 buses were inducted under this scheme since 2001, the total custom duty exemption amounts to Rs 90 million so far.
Attributing the uncertainty to the unprecedented surge in diesel prices, sources said this hangs up its future. The UTS was launched some four years back to change the transport culture of the city by bringing in new large size buses and phasing out old and rickety public transport network.
While some UTS operators have wound up their operation due to their inability to pay off the loans they borrowed from banks and leasing companies due to increasing operating cost caused by high diesel prices, others are also thinking on the same lines either to cease their operation or sell the fleet of buses to some other party.
So far, two companies have completely wound up their operation while two others have cut down the number of buses under UTS from what they brought in at the time of the start of their operation.
Around 25 buses of a company have been seized by a leasing company due to its failure of to pay off the loan the company borrowed to buy the buses.
Also, the large size buses, which were brought in under UTS for Karachi, are now finding their way to other parts of the country particularly Punjab. One operator of UTS sold the fleet to a company which is running it in Multan.
Initially, it was planned to induct 5000 large size buses to completely phase out the old smoke-emitting minibuses, buses and coaches. However, only 300 large size buses could be brought in four years time.
Sources said that the bleak future of the scheme is evident from the fact that not only the number of buses are being cut down by operators but there has also been no new entry in this scheme for last many months.
An official of Transport & Communication Department (TCD) city government said that notices have been issued to some companies which either wound up their operation or sold them to a Punjab-based transport group.
Under the rules of UTS, the buses brought in under this scheme for Karachi could not be shifted to any other city of the country. "We had asked the Punjab Transport Department not to issue route permit to such buses", he added.
Sources, however, said that despite the non-issuing of route permit, these buses are operating in Multan because the transport group, which bought these buses is reportedly owned by an influential politician, who happens to be a MPA of Punjab.
On the issue of inability of UTS operators to pay off the borrowed money to banks and leasing companies, it is learnt that a meeting is expected between the representatives of leasing companies and officials of city government to sort out the matter and find out a way out of this situation.
"The diesel price was Rs 17 per litre when the scheme was launched in 2001 and now it stands at Rs 37 per litre while only a slight increase of Rs 1 to 2 has been made in fares since then", a UTS operator said.
The monthly instalment of each bus ranges from Rs 50,000 to Rs 60,000, which is very hard to pay in the wake of unprecedented surge in fuel prices.