BEST staff salary still paid in coins

BEST staff salary still paid in coins

Somit.Sen@timesgroup.com

Mumbai:01.04.2021 

BEST staffers still continue to get cash and coins of Rs 5 and Rs 10 denomination valued at Rs 15,000 as part of monthly salary. BEST panel member Sunil Ganacharya said at a committee meeting on Wednesday, demanding why cash in crores was not being deposited in bank accounts and lying at depots and BEST’s cash room at Wadala for the past two months.

“A contract was signed with a bank in January to lift ticket collections, but it is not being done till date,” he said at the meeting. “This is unwarranted as so much is lying in strongrooms of depots and at the central cash collection centre at Wadala.”

A senior BEST official said that a significant part of the ticket box collection was used to give monthly salaries to 40,000 staffers. This included packets of coins of Rs 5 and Rs 10 denomination and cash of Rs 10, Rs 50, Rs 100 denominations up to Rs 15,000 as part of salary.

A panel member said a contract to lift coins and cash was awarded in January and it was presumed that employees would get 100% salaries in their accounts. “But they still have to queue up to collect money bags,” said the member. “The rest of the salary is deposited in bank accounts.”