It is no secret that the average auto-rickshaw driver in the city is viewed as someone forever trying to shortchange the passenger. If you thought the high fuel cost (petrol prices are down, but lubricant costs are still high) was the lone reason the auto-rickshaw owners drove a hard bargain, think again.

In Pune, the last year has seen the cost of acquiring a permit with a five-year validity to run the three-wheeler virtually double from Rs 30,000 to Rs 55,000-60,000. And this one factor keeps the auto-rickshaw owners on the back-foot, as they perpetually try to play catch-up with a profitable model of keeping the vehicle on the city roads.

In 1997, the price of an auto-rickshaw permit issued by the Regional Transport Office (RTO) was Rs 50. That was when the Regional Transport Authority (RTA) stopped issuing permits on the grounds that the city already had more than required autos plying on the streets.

But trading of permits has continued in the parallel market between agents, original permit holders and auto drivers. The prices have also steadily increased from around Rs 5,000 in 1997-98 to around Rs 30,000 last year.

This price doubled after the RTA policy on scrapping came about last February. Now, the going rate for the price of a permit is around Rs 60,000. Thus, the price of the permit alone is more than the price of a second-hand auto-rickshaw — a five-year-old auto costs Rs 40,000.

“In February 2008, the RTA issued a guideline saying any auto-rickshaw without a valid permit would have to be scrapped. Prior to this, auto-rickshaws could apply for private registration and use the vehicles for other purposes. Since then, the demand for permits has soared and with it the prices,” said an agent who arranges these permits and calls himself an ‘auto consultant’. Without a valid permit, an auto-rickshaw would be worth only its scrap value.

At many of these ‘consultancies’, original permit holders are in demand. In 2003, one such permit-holder Nasir sold his permit issued by RTO to a driver for Rs 25,000.

As the RTA rules prohibit transfer of a permit, Nasir used a Rs 100 stamp paper to acknowledge that the permit has been given to another to be used “free of cost”— the monetary transaction conducted in presence of the auto consultant.

Now, Nasir wants Rs 50,000 for his auto permit. “The auto-rickshaw driver who was using my permit says he cannot afford this money,” he said.