NH toll may be waived for public

 People may be relieved from paying toll on national highways as the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways proposes to collect user charges only from commercial vehicles.

“The ministry is working on the suggestion of collecting toll only from commercial vehicles by sparing rest of vehicles,” an official in the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways told Deccan Herald.

With the increasing instances of protests from public over toll collection on national highways in different parts of the country, the Centre is working on a new toll policy by bringing radical changes in the existing National Highways Fee (Determination of Rates and Collection) Rules formulated in 2008. The new policy is expected to be ready in a couple of months.

Now,  all vehicles, except two and three wheelers, emergency service vehicles and VIPs, have to pay toll on highways. Commercial vehicles include vehicles hired for rent like taxis, buses as well as goods transporting vehicles like trucks and tempos.

Though the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) officials apprehend that sparing non-commercial vehicles from paying toll charges will erode its revenue, the Highway Ministry dismissed the fear saying that with 80 per cent of the toll collection coming from commercial vehicles, it would not harm the revenue of the NHAI.

However, the new proposal will not be applicable to existing highways built under the Build Own Operate Transfer (BOOT) policy where the NHAI already signed an MoU with private developers. It will be applicable only for new BOOT highways, said the official.

Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari recently announced the plan to stop collection of toll charges once the cost of the project is recovered. However, a section of officials in the ministry opposed the proposal, saying this will lead to fiscal burden on the cash-strapped NHAI.  The NHAI collected Rs 11,387 crore as toll in fiscal 2013-14. Of this, Rs 3,398 crore was collected on public or government-funded roads.

There are 374 toll plazas on national highways now of which about 164 are private-funded, 138 are public-funded and 72 are public-funded bridges.

However, the ministry promised the NHAI that its concerns will be addressed and if there arises any shortfall in its revenue, the ministry will sanction additional funds.