The district collector on Wednesday sealed three bank accounts of the Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) over non-payment of tax.
“The Transport Commissioner has been trying to recover more than ₹500 crore from BEST on account of passenger tax and nutrition surcharge. Due to non-payment due to its current financial condition, recovery was initiated by the collector, Mumbai city. The collector has attached three accounts of BEST Undertaking. We have requested the State government to give us immediate relief since we are facing severe financial crunch. We are hopeful of earliest resolution of the matter positively,” BEST said in a statement.
Senior member of the BEST Committee, Ravi Raja said that the accounts had been frozen two days ago. “The State government has to bail out the transport division, which has been bleeding for years. We will discuss the way forward in tomorrow’s committee meeting,” he said.
BEST owed the government around ₹500 crore in passenger tax that has accumulated since 2010, according to sources. The city district collector had recently sent a notice to BEST threatening to attach its movable or immovable properties, for failing to pay the same.
The State government has levied 3.5% passenger tax on every ticket of BEST and has given it to the collector to recover dues owed to it by individuals and organisations. BEST has been in a financial crisis with cumulative losses of over ₹2,000 crore.