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Ernakulam: Thousands of students and professionals who depend on luxury buses to travel to neighbouring states of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka is set to be in trouble as nearly 600 luxury private buses operating between Kerala and neighbouring will halt its services from today evening.
The decision comes after the luxury bus association in Kerala has alleged of imposing ‘Tax terrorism’, seizure of vehicles for minor reasons and continuos harassment of bus employees.
“We are forced to suspend the operations from 6pm on Monday due to continuous harassment, seizure of vehicles, and imposition of unlawful state-level taxes and heavy fines by Tamil Nadu and Karnataka authorities,” said AJ Rijas, Kerala state president of Luxury Bus Owners Association.
According to the association, an estimated 4,000 people travel daily in these luxury buses to major hubs like Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, and Madurai. The busy Kochi-Bengaluru sector alone sees about 80 bus services each day.
The core of the dispute centres around the All India Tourist Permit (AITP) framework. Kerala bus operators argue that their AITP, issued under the Central Motor Vehicles Act, exempts them from paying any additional state taxes, provided the national permit fee is paid. Despite this, they claim Kerala-registered tourist vehicles are being stopped, heavily fined, and detained in the neighbouring states, actions they deem a clear violation of the AITP Rules.
Meanwhile, bus owners associations in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Puducherry have also decided to suspend all inter-state services from Monday. According to the associations, the steep road taxes levied by various states have made operations financially unviable.
“I used to travel to my home and back at least thrice in a month due to the work-from-home facility allotted by my employer. We usually depend on private buses since the travel plans are often chartered at the last minute. Many like us will be hit hard by the suspension of services,” said Prashanth Nambiar S, a software employee working in Bengaluru and hailing from Talipparamba.
