NEW DELHI: The central government is set to roll out an all-India permit for tourist buses on the lines of National Permit for trucks, in its bid to improve inter-state connectivity. Under this scheme, bus operators will have to pay an annual authorisation fee, which will allow them to ply across states seamlessly and may also help reduce bus fares.The road transport ministry has issued a draft notification proposing annual permit fee of up to Rs 3 lakh for air-conditioned (AC) and Rs 2 lakh for non-AC buses carrying more than 23 passengers. Different rates have been proposed for three categories of buses. Currently, operators are required to obtain an authorisation certificate to operate tourist buses and they need to pay separate permit charges for plying in different states.Industry sources said the annual all-India permit fee proposed by the ministry is about one-tenth of what they pay to ply. The proposal also provides for operators to obtain simple authorisation to carry passengers and they can have the option for getting permits for specific states by paying separate charges.“This provision has been made since some of the operators may wish to ply their buses only within one state or may wish to restrict their operation to only a couple of states. We hope the fare will also reduce as the overall expense for getting permits for multiple states will be less,” said a transport ministry official.Bus Operators Confederation of India welcomed the proposal and said the reform was overdue. “We have been demanding this to help us unleash the potential of bus transport in the country. We are hopeful of states coming on board for its effective implementation,” said confederation president Prasanna Patwardhan.The ministry has proposed the norms for sharing the amount collected as permit charges to protect the revenue of each state.