If you take electricity from Brihanmumbai Electricity Supply and Transport (BEST), get ready to shell out more on the bills from next month. Not because of any hike in power tariffs, but because BEST’s transport wing is suffering losses. And you are expected to make up for them.u00a0You will have to help BEST keep afloat its creaking fleet of buses by paying something called ‘bus charges’ in your electricity bill.u00a0

BEST wants to make good its transport division’s annual loss amounting to Rs 215 crore by taking this money from its 10 lakh power consumers in the island city. As approved by Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission (MERC), the power charges will include a factor of bus charges to indicate the component you pay toward losses of the transport wing. “This simply means that those residing in the island city will pay for the suburbanites travelling in BEST buses,” said Ashok Pendse, power expert.