BEST parties, subscribers may foot bill

July 9: In a classic case of being penny-wise and pound-foolish, the Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) Undertaking, which s...

July 9: In a classic case of being penny-wise and pound-foolish, the Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) Undertaking, which suffers annual loss of crores of rupees, has planned to spend more than Rs 40 lakh for the BEST Day celebrations on August 7.

According to a note dated July 3, 1997, tabled before the BEST committee, the administration has sought sanction of the members to incur an approximate expenditure of Rs 20 lakh to commemorate the golden jubilee of the municipalisation of BEST Company Limited.

However, the actual expenditure estimated by the Undertaking for organising various programmes on BEST Day comes to Rs 41,90,476. The note states that “every effort will be made to minimise expenditure,” but if demands made by members of the committee to celebrate the golden jubilee on a grander scale are satisfied, the cost may escalate further.

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The members argued the special supplements to be issued by BEST in newspapers of The Indian Express and The Times of India groups at a cost of about Rs 2.50 lakh should also be issued in all city newspapers. They said the BEST was being partial and readers of newspapers of other languages like Marathi, Gujarati, and Urdu should also be made aware of the Undertaking’s accomplishments in the last 50 years.

They suggested the commemorative plaque proposed to be put up at BEST Bhavan at Colaba at a cost of Rs 36,000 should also be placed at other important depots in Mumbai.

Incidentally, BEST had argued the steep hike in bus fares and electric supply tariff proposed by it recently was inevitable in view of massive losses and mounting operational costs. If approved, the hike will put a combined annual burden of Rs 157 crore on Mumbaikars.

The revised tariff of Tata Electric Companies for supply of power to BEST, effective from January 1, 1996, has already put a burden of Rs 7.8 crore on the Undertaking for the financial year 1996-97. The additional burden for the current financial year is estimated to be Rs 34.62 crore.

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This apart, due to the signing of the new wage agreement with the BEST Workers union, the Undertaking will bear an additional financial burden of Rs 330 crore over the next five years.

The agreement’s impact on the staff cost of the supply division alone is estimated at over Rs 11 crore. It has also put an additional liability of Rs 44 crore on this year’s transport operations, increasing its deficit from Rs 53.90 crore to Rs 97.90 crore. While the surplus netted on the electric supply division has been estimated at Rs 54.44 crore for the current year, the losses of the transport division will still amount to a net deficit of Rs 66 crore for the Undertaking.