The report of Arunachal Pradesh State Transport Service (APSTS) earning record revenue of Rs 19.43 crore, surpassing its own target of Rs 18 crore shows that not all is lost in the state. APSTS’s revenue collection has been consistently increasing in recent year. The credit goes to the officials for turning around the APSTS from loss making department to revenue generating one. Its success story should inspire other revenue generating departments like tax & excise, tourism, power, etc.
State government should check the leakage of revenues in these departments. Especially the power and tax & excise departments have failed to live upto the expectations of the people of state. Revenue leakages have badly hurt the image of the two departments. The success state governments have failed to stop the pilferage of revenues. For Arunachal Pradesh to realize the dream of ending dependency on central fund, the revenue generating departments will have to play pivotal role. The achievement of APSTS has proved that where there is a will there is way. Who would have thought ten years ago that one day it will earn record revenue for the state? There was general feeling that department will not be able to compete with private bus and sumo service providers. But to the credit of everyone especially its drivers and conductors, the APSTS has proved detractors wrong. Hopefully it will continue to take lead role in generating revenue for the state in years to come.