TEAM HERALD
teamherald@herald-goa.com
PANJIM: The entry tax issue has begun to take its toll on passengers as bus operators have started collecting money onboard to cough up their contribution at the borders.
Herald has learnt from passengers travelling from Mumbai to Goa that bus operators take around few hours before reaching the State border check post collecting a sum of Rs 20 or Rs 30 for paying the entry tax.
It is learnt that most of the passenger vehicles are likely to commence this practice of collecting a separate fee from passengers during the journey towards payment of the entry tax.
Mario Pereira of Paulo Travels and also a member of the Goa Interstate Bus Operators Association said, “Most of the bus operators will be taking a separate fee from passengers.”
Pereira said that they had no option but to collect a separate fee as the bus ticket hike is not enough to meet the rising cost of diesel. “We cannot include the additional burden of entry tax on the ticket charged,” he said.
While some of the bus operators have started collecting their additional burden of entry tax from passengers, the rest are likely to do so within the next few days.
The Goa Interstate Bus Operators Association is also hoping that the government comes with a good concessional entry tax pass system.
The Transport Department on the other hand was unaware of this new practice adopted by bus operators.
“We will look into this matter,” said Manual Afonso, Deputy Director of Transport.
The Transport Ministry has also pointed out that they may not be able to stop this as it basically involves the bus operators and passengers.
So far the department has not received any complaint from any passenger.
