Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) has a new problem. With the company getting the majority of its revenues in coins, its banker ICICI Bank has now asked the company to cough up Rs 40 lakh a month to process the transporter’s monthly revenues of Rs 4 crore, which are majorly in coins. The bank has demanded a service charge of 10% of the value of coins to be collected, The Indian Express reported. If BEST agrees to these terms, it will have to pay about Rs 40 lakh a month to ICICI Bank for collecting and transporting coins every month from 27 depots.
Currently, ICICI Bank employees collect and deposit ticket revenues from 27 BEST depots spread across Mumbai. The same reflects in the transporter’s account in some days. Till the time the money is not credited in BEST account, ICICI Bank enjoys a float period, i.e, money is freely available to the bank for a short while. ICICI had not sought any charge for collecting the coins from the BEST depots until now.
BEST’s strange coins problem
BEST had earlier slashed its bus fares to a minimum of Rs 5 in July last year and its problems have been mounting since. The transporter had Rs 10 crore worth coins lying around in January and it had requested 13 banks to change it to cash but to no avail. Since December 2018, the company has been paying a part of employee salary in coins, the newspaper had reported in January 2020.
With its contract expiring in July 2017, ICICI Bank had sought to introduce fresh terms and conditions to the transporter. In a letter dated 25 February 2020, the bank proposed a service charge of Rs 3 for every Rs 1,000 collected in notes of Rs 200 denomination and Rs 50 on every Rs 1,000 collected in notes of Rs 100 denomination. Maximum charges have been proposed for collecting Rs 1,000 in coins and the bank will charge service levy of Rs 100.
Coins also pose a need for additional manpower for the company and employees have also been complaining about the difficulty of carrying weighty coins. To resolve the issue, the company has been promoting commuters to use digital payments to settle dues.