Tax cut on buses brings no cheer for Mumbai school children

The state transport department recently announced a substantial cut in the annual tax that it levies on school buses. The move is to incentivise public transport for schoolchildren by making school bus fees more accessible. Less tax would mean less bus fees. However, that may not happen.

Anil Garg of the School and Company Bus Operators Association said that this cut means little for a vast majority of the private bus operators who ply their buses on school as well as company routes as the cut is not applicable to them. Garg said that there are close to 4,500 such buses and only about 500 buses which function as school buses full time.

Thus, most children are unable to benefit from a measure which was introduced for them. Garg claimed that it is not just the school and company buses, but even those buses which run full time haven’t slashed their fees. “The school managements who own these buses are the only ones benefiting,” he alleged.

Indrani Malkani, an activist who conceived the ‘Model School Bus Policy’, said, the committee of policy makers who finalised the policy draft had recommended giving some tax cut benefit for those bus operators who ply on both routes.

It was meant to be a relatively lesser incentive as compared to the full time bus operators. She wondered why it had not been factored in.

State transport commissioner Dilip Jadhav said, “Once the new school bus regulations come into effect all these buses will no longer ply as school buses. I am going to meet these bus operators next week to discuss these issues.”

According to Jayant Jain, an education activist, schools are increasing bus fees instead of reducing them.

Also, many schools make bus travel compulsory. Mahesh Prabhu, a parent of a child studying in a school in Santa Cruz said that though he lives within walking distance from the school, he still had to enroll his child for the bus. “My daughter has to go by bus as the school fees include the bus fees. It is compulsory,” he said.