The Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) Undertaking’s financial woes are set to increase, as it might soon have to part with around ₹5 crore every month as passenger tax and nutrition cess, which it collects as part of bus fare.

The District Collector froze three bank accounts of the undertaking after the State Transport Department initiated action last week to recover around ₹500 crore, which was due to the government in passenger tax and nutrition cess. Surendrakumar Bagde, BEST General Manager, said, “As soon as we got to know about it, we requested the government to grant a stay, which it has.”

Mr. Bagde did not to divulge details about the accounts, but said the undertaking’s operations have not been affected, and it is in talks with the government to resolve the issue of the dues and make the accounts operational. “But we have been asked to start paying the tax from November,” he said.

BEST owes the State ₹363.37 crore in passenger tax and ₹136.21 crore in nutrition cess, from June 2010 to March 2017. The government levies 3.5% passenger tax on every city service ticket across the State and charges 15 paise as nutrition cess.

Ticketing revenue has been steadily declining as BEST has been losing passengers over the years. In 2017-18, revenue from passengers stood at ₹1,044 crore. Mr. Bagde said they have requested the government to waive the tax, given the mounting losses of BEST’s transport wing. Its accumulated losses were over ₹2,000 crore as of March 31. He said they also have liabilities of ₹2,000 crore.