‘Rising fuel prices may add ₹26 crore to BEST fuel bill’

The Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) undertaking might have to bear additional expenses of up to ₹26 crore by the end of the year if fuel prices remain at current levels, members of the BEST committee said on Thursday.

However, Surendrakumar Bagde, the general manager of BEST, dismissed the claims and said the real loss would be clear only in July. Mr. Bagde said, “Our expenses on diesel fluctuates with the market rate. We calculate our fuel expenses on a quarterly basis and will be in a position to ascertain the actual impact of the fuel hike only in July.”

Anil Kokil, Shiv Sena leader and committee member, sought to know the steps taken by the BEST to counter the hike and if it had written to government asking for an exemption from State taxes.

Ashish Chemburkar, the committee’s chairman, said they would be writing to the government for a waiver similar to the one demanded by State Transport Minister Diwakar Raote last week.

Mr. Raote had said in his letter to the Chief Minister that the fuel hike would have an adverse effect on the financial health of the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation.

At present, the BEST has 3,367 buses in its fleet, of which, 1,329 run on diesel. It has spent around ₹1.39 crore on diesel between April 2017 and February 2018 and is grappling with a cumulative loss of over ₹2,000 crore. Fuel prices had been surging for 16 consecutive days since May 14.

BEST has seen passenger traffic drop to 25 lakh daily from around 40 lakh a decade ago. Senior BEST committee member Sunil Ganacharya of the BJP said the daily collection had dropped from ₹ 3.25 crore to ₹2.25 crore in the past year.