Travel fares in private city buses will be costlier from Saturday as Dakshina Kannada Bus Operators’ Association has decided to increase the fares from a minimum ₹1 to a maximum ₹2.

The association said in a release on Thursday that for the existing fares ranging between ₹12 and ₹20, the fare will go up by ₹1 and for tickets above ₹20, the fare will be hiked by ₹2.

The association president Azeez Parthippady and general secretary Ramachandra Pilar said the operators decided to levy cess on the existing fares to cope up with the increasing cost of inputs, including diesel.

They said the hike is applicable for the travel both in buses being operated within city limits and outside in rural areas. The association will continue to issue chalo student cards to students at 60 % concession in fares. They said that the association hiked the travel fares last on July 26, 2021.

The input costs since then has gone up by 40 %, they claimed.

It may be mentioned here that Federation of Stage Carriage Bus Operators’ Association of Karnataka hiked the travel fares by ₹5 to ₹8 from June 8, as they also decided to levy cess on the existing fares.

According to the president of the federation Kuyiladi Suresh Nayak a notification by the Transport Department authorises operators to levy cess at the rate of 4 paise per passenger per km up to 25 paise whenever there was increase in input costs.

Mr. Nayak said the Karnataka government’s VAT increase on fuel a year ago had resulted in ₹3 increase in diesel price, while the Centre has recently increased diesel price by ₹8.17 in four installments. Prices of spare parts and other inputs too have witnessed steep increase over the past few years.