The Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) undertaking has decided to write off ₹2 lakh in fake currency received as daily collection in 2016-17.
The fake notes were detected by banks such as ICICI Bank, State Bank of India, Citi Bank and Bank of India, where the money was deposited. The banks then handed the notes back to the public transport utility.
The BEST on an average received around ₹15,000 in fake currency every month after the Central government announced the demonetisation move on November 8 last year. The total amount in counterfeit currency rose to ₹57,800 in November 2016. The currency included 39 notes in the ₹1,000 denomination and 37 notes in the ₹500 denomination.
Sunil Ganacharya, member of the BJP on the BEST committee, said: “It is very suspicious that suddenly a large number of fake notes became part of the BEST’s daily collection. There is something fishy. Someone has tried to circulate counterfeit high-denomination notes in the BEST.”
The BEST tracked the source of the fake notes to monthly pass holders who used high-denomination notes to purchase the passes. It later recovered ₹7,000 in notes from pass holders, but had to suffer losses amounting to ₹28,050.
At present, the BEST has no mechanism to either detect or trace source of the fake currency. Mr. Ganacharya said, “₹2 lakh is a small amount for a utility service like the BEST that received over ₹1,194 crore in the 2016-17 financial year through its transport divisions. It is not practical to spend over ₹50,000 to buy fake money detecting machines. More money has to be spent then to maintain and repair the machines. Most transactions are going digital now, it makes more sense to just write them off as losses now.”
The BEST officials said it was unfair to blame its personnel for the fake currency as money changed many hands before being counted and deposited in the banks.
