MUMBAI: Of savings worth Rs 6,300 crore that the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation deposited in nine banks this January, the lowest amount — Rs 1 crore — has gone to Axis Bank .

In December 2019, state finance minister Jayant Patil ’s statement that the Shiv Senaled Maha Vikas Aghadi government was “considering” shifting employees’ salary accounts from Axis Bank had triggered a political controversy. Amruta Fadnavis, wife of former CM Devendra Fadnavis , holds a senior position with Axis Bank. Amruta Fadnavis had, however, denied that there had been any favour shown towards Axis Bank when her husband was the CM. In the wake of that row, however, Mumbai mayor Kishori Pednekar of Sena had said that the BMC would ensure its investments were “safe”.

In all, the civic authority has Rs 78,919 crore in fixed deposits in different banks.

The January deposits were divided into 446 FDs for a period ranging between 12 months and 24 months. Of the Rs 6,300 crore deposits, the maximum was deposited in six nationalised banks, and Rs 329 crore in ICICI Bank, a private bank. Interest rates at these banks were below 6.4%.

The Axis Bank deposit is set to mature in July next year. Asked about the Axis deposit amount, BMC officials stated that they had opted for banks that offered the best interest rates, as also after considering other security aspects. When told that their own record showed Axis Bank had offered the second-highest interest rate (6.5%) after the municipal (cooperative) bank

(7.25%), in which BMC deposited Rs 5 crore, the BMC officials declined comment. Axis Bank officials too refused to comment on the matter, and Amruta Fadnavis was unavailable for comment.

