Go cashless, Delhi transport minister tells his dept as DTC revenue plummets

Transport minister Satyendar Jain has ordered the department to immediately start accepting payments through other means.

Struggling with shortage of cash, the transport department has decided to reduce dependency on notes and opt cashless transaction.

Transport minister Satyendar Jain has ordered the department to immediately start accepting payments through other means.

Transport minister Satyendar Jain has ordered the department to immediately start accepting payments through other means.

“Keeping in view the scarcity of cash due to demonetisation, please start accepting fees and payments in the form of bank drafts/pay orders also immediately for all transport-related matters,” Jain wrote in the order.

Most of the revenue earned by the transport department which includes vehicle registration tax, road tax, licence fee and charges for fitness tests come in cash. “Demonetisation has hit the department’s functioning as we are facing acute cash crunch. Our offices are facing difficulty in giving out change to those who are making payments,” said a transport department official.

As soon as demonetisation was announced on November 8, it was the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) which was hit badly. While the average revenue of DTC through the buses it operates usually hovers around R 2.44 crore, the same after currency ban had come down to R 1.69 crore.

“On November 2, the revenue earned by DTC was Rs 2.44 crore, which on the first day of demonetisation (November 9) reduced to Rs 1.69 crore. On November 7, a day before the currency ban, our earning was Rs 2.20 crore,” said a DTC official.

The earnings of DTC remained below R 2 lakh for a good one week after old 500-1000 rupee notes were banned. For example, on November 10, the public transporter pocketed only R 1.92 crore, which by November 12 had dropped to R 1.72 crore. On November 14, it further plummeted to R 1.36 crore.

“Now we have gradually recovered our earnings which is currently ticking around R 2.25 crore on a daily basis. On November 28, for example the revenue was R 2.24 crore,” the official said.