Refund or waive user charge when national highway services are below par: Parliamentary Panel to govt | India News

NEW DELHI: Pulling up the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) and highway transport ministry for accumulating toll on highway stretches that are incomplete, below extended development, or marked by severe deficiencies, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has really useful a government-backed framework for refunding or waiving user fees the place highway services are below par.In its newest report, the PAC has drawn consideration to the Income Tax framework, the place authorities has institutionalised a mechanism to course of refunds to taxpayers in case of extra deduction or fee, and has really useful that NHAI and the highway transport ministry set up a technology-driven and clear mechanism for automated toll refund or waiver in case a highway stretch is “incomplete, unfit, or unavailable fully or under maintenance for use”.The apex parliamentary panel headed by Congress MP Okay C Venugopal really useful that the refund system needs to be “fully integrated with the electronic toll collection framework (FASTag) and designed to function without the need for user intervention, just as income tax refunds are processed and paid directly to taxpayers”.The committee has referred to sections 7 and 10 of the NH Act, which element the ability of presidency to levy user charge in consideration of services or advantages rendered on NHs and require NHAI to discharge its features in accordance with sound enterprise rules, to arrive at its conclusions.“The Committee finds it unacceptable that toll continues to be collected even in situations where the essential service — namely, safe, uninterrupted, and timely travel — is not available. This includes highway stretches that are incomplete, under prolonged construction, or marked by serious deficiencies in safety and traffic flow. Continuing to levy toll without delivering the promised level of service violates both the user-pay principle embedded in Section-7 of the NH Act and the norms of fair commercial conduct envisaged under Section-10 of the NHAI Act,” the report mentioned.It additionally talked about that the ministry had knowledgeable it that toll is presently collected below the NH Fee Rules, 2008, and is explicitly levied for the supply of highway-related services to customers. The ministry had additionally informed the PAC that user comfort stays a problem and that efforts are underway to implement barrierless free-flow tolling techniques to improve service supply.There have been a number of situations the place courts have directed NHAI to both droop tolling or scale back fees until highway stretches are again in form.

Questions Perpetual Tolling

The panel has additionally raised questions on toll fees linked to base charges first fastened in 2008 and yearly revised, with a 3% annual escalation, regardless of highway high quality, site visitors quantity, or user affordability. It noticed that the idea of tolling in perpetuity was first launched by means of an modification to the Fee Rules in 2008, permitting continued assortment of user charges even after the restoration of undertaking prices. “This provision was further clarified and codified through the 2023 amendment to the Fee Rules, which explicitly permits tolling to continue beyond the end of the concession period, thereby formalising a regime of perpetual tolling,” it mentioned. It mentioned as soon as the concession interval of a BOT-toll undertaking is over, the asset is handed over to NHAI, after which it’s operated as a publicly funded toll plaza, with toll revenues credited straight to the Consolidated Fund of India. “While toll rates are revised annually through a formula combining a fixed 3% increment with partial indexation to the Wholesale Price Index, the committee find that there is no institutional mechanism to independently evaluate whether toll charges are justified in relation to actual operation and maintenance costs or future service requirements,” the panel mentioned. The committee really useful that toll assortment on any highway stretch should be rationalised and considerably decreased as soon as capital and routine upkeep prices have been recovered. “Any continuation of tolls beyond this point should be permitted only if clearly justified and approved by the proposed independent oversight authority,” it mentioned whereas urging the ministry to assessment all present contracts and publicly funded toll plazas permitting tolling past value restoration in gentle of those rules to safeguard user curiosity and uphold the precept of fairness in public infrastructure utilization. It has really useful establishing a tariff authority, on the traces of the Airports Economic Regulatory Authority (AERA) within the civil aviation sector, to guarantee transparency and equity in toll fixation, assortment, and regulation.