The Odisha government on Monday waived road tax for buses and contract carriages for June.

A notification to this effect was issued in the evening by the Odisha commerce and transport department.

On Monday, The Telegraph had published a report headlined “Bus Owner to Vegetable Seller”, highlighting the plight of 14,000 bus owners in the state.

Debendra Kumar Sahoo, general secretary of the All Odisha Bus Owners’ Association, said: “Today, we sent The Telegraph report to the government citing the plight of the bus owners. Taking it into consideration, the government waived the road tax for June. We are thankful to the Odisha government. Earlier, it had waived the road tax for April and May. We will still insist that the road tax for July, August and September be also waived. Now it’s the turn of the Union government to announce a special package for bus owners.”

He added: “The Centre should initiate steps to waive the interest on bank loans taken for purchasing a vehicle or defer the EMIs by a

year. Besides, the insurance companies should be asked to waive the fees for the lockdown period.”