July 7: After the hike in water charges, the city is in for another steep hike in bus fares and power tariff.

The Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) Undertaking has proposed this hike to offset massive losses and rising operational costs.The proposal was tabled before the BEST Committee today and it is likely to be approved in the committee's next meeting on July 21. The fare hike sought to be approved by the Undertaking ranges from 50 paise to Rs 2 for ordinary buses and from 50 paise to Rs 2.50 for limited services, putting an annual burden of Rs 95 crore on commuters.

Following the hike in tariff by the Tata Electric Companies, which supply power to the BEST, the Undertaking has proposed to hike its tariff for its consumers in Mumbai by 10 per cent. The total burden on the consumers is estimated at Rs 70 crore.

With this hike, the daily traffic revenue of BEST will go up from Rs 1.31 crore to an estimated Rs 1.57 crore. Correspondingly, the annual income is expected to go up from Rs 487 crore to Rs 573 crore, bringing down losses on transport operations by about Rs 95 crore.

The Undertaking also sought the committee's approval to increase the electric supply tariff following revision of electricity tariff by Tata Electric Companies (TEC), which supply electricity to BEST. Accordingly, consumers in Mumbai will have to pay 10 per cent more on their electricity bills, i.e., the revision of the first slab up to 100 units to Re one per unit for residential consumers.

While the revised bus fares would be implemented with immediate effect once the committee approves it, the revised electric supply tariff will be enforced from July 15. The revised tariff of TEC was effective from January 1, 1997 and it had already put a burden of Rs 7.8 crore on BEST for the financial year 1996-97. The additional burden for the current financial year is estimated to the tune of Rs 34.62 crore.

Apart from this, the BEST has agreed to bear an additional financial burden of Rs 330 crore over the next five years as per the new wage agreement signed with the BEST Workers' Union. The impact of the agreement on staff cost of the supply division is estimated at over Rs 11 crore this year. The agreement has put an additional liability of Rs 44 crore on transport operations for this year, increasing the total deficit on the transport division from Rs 53.90 crore to Rs 97.90 crores. While the surplus netted on electric supply division has been estimated at Rs 54.44 crore for the current year, the huge deficit on the transport division will still amount to a net deficit of Rs 66 crore for the Undertaking.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.