16 November,2016 05:44 PM IST | | Ranjeet Jadhav
Revenue generated at 40 RTO offices Rs 11.83 crore on Monday; e-purse collected over Rs 44 lakh since November 8
The state transport department collected revenue of Rs 11.8 crore in just one day, on Monday. BEST's e-purse services have also registered stellar collections since the PM deemed old high denomination (OHD) currency notes invalid last Tuesday. E-purse has earned over Rs 44 lakh till now, which is double the amount it earns in a week, on an average.
According to the state transport department, on Monday, the revenue that was generated across the 40 RTO offices in the state was Rs 11.83 crore. Interestingly, despite it being a bank holiday, these RTO offices were functioning on Monday.
Panvel RTO generated the highest revenue with collection of Rs 1.84 crore, followed by Nanded RTO with collection of Rs 1.13 crore.
An RTO official said on the condition of anonymity, "People with outstanding payments towards motor taxes have been approaching RTO offices and it's a good sign as is that it is contributing to our revenue."
Rethinking card transactions
The discontinuation of OHD notes for the time being, however, has caused inconvenience to people who want to get their new cars registered or apply for licenses. Several instances of quarrels have been reported from various RTO offices pertaining to payment issues.
The government is now considering if it should accept debit and credit cards at these offices to ease transactions.
According to the figures from BEST, between November 1 to November 8, 4,598 smart card top-ups were done and BEST earned R18.35 lakh revenue.
e-wallet overflows
But after the decision to discontinue the OHD notes, in just five days between November 9 to 14, a total of 5,114 top-ups were registered, which earned BEST over Rs 39.54 lakh. Incidentally, BEST e-purse services were started to reduce cash transactions for buying tickets as commuters can recharge their cards with top-ups ranging from Rs 1,000 to Rs 10,000.
