At the BEST committee meeting today, Chimanlal Mehta of the BJP said that all over the world subsidies are given to transport bodies in metros. He added that the BEST pays passenger tax and nutrition surcharge to the State Government which made it the latter's responsibility to ease the burden on passengers most of whom belonged to the middle and poor classes.

Till 1952, transport bodies in the State were making profits and paying income-tax to the Central government. With most transport undertakings making losses, this was changed to `passenger tax' to keep the revenue in the State itself. Today, the BEST pays 3 per cent of its earnings, almost Rs 25 crore every year, as passenger tax.

Interestingly, nutrition surcharge was imposed in 1971 as `Bangladesh tax' to pay to the people in that country as relief. In '72it was disposed of by most states but continued in Maharashtra as `nutrition tax' charged on every ticket and till date continues to be part of the State Government's general revenue.

The BEST also incurs a loss of Rs 1.5 lakh everyday for ferrying police personnel free of cost. The State Government reimburses only Rs 15 lakh per month towards this.

The BEST had last revised its fares on October 4, 1997. Since then, increase in dearness allowance and cost inputs had forced the Undertaking to think of another fare hike which has now become inevitable following the diesel price hike.