A high-level team headed by the state transport commissioner has taken a policy decision to shift the locations of five of the eight toll plazas operating in the state. Going by the decision of the committee, these toll plazas will continue to function just as before while the government will only change their location.
The state government had already taken the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) into confidence and they have agreed to the state government proposal. According to NHAI guidelines, there should be a gap of at least 60 km between two toll gates. Further, no toll gate should be within 10 km from the precincts of a municipality or notified area council regions.
A couple of months ago, there was a statewide outrage over news that five out of eight tollgates managed by the NHAI in Orissa collected money in violation of the above norms. At present, eight toll plazas operate on the national highways across the state and they are at Manguli in Cuttack, Panikoili and Srirampur in Jajpur, Gudiapada in Khurda, Gurapalli in Ganjam, Shergarh in Balasore, Barahagoda in Bargarh and Pipli in Puri districts.
The transport commissioner has written to public works secretary to begin work to shift the toll plazas at Barahagoda, Panikoili, Shergarh, Srirampur and Pipli to places 20 km farther.
Taxes are of paramount importance for a nation’s economy. Paying adequate tax and on time is a fundamental duty of every law-abiding citizen of the country.
The Centre and the state governments meet their various expenses from various forms of taxes that citizens pay. However, the government should refrain from levying taxes in a coercive manner. It must not force people to pay illegal taxes. Collection of tollgate fees at the above five toll plazas over last many years was an illegal act by the NHAI and the state government failed to take note of this, let alone plugging this.
The NHAI all these years has mopped up crores of rupees through these toll plazas and there is no way it could refund the money to people. The state government has finally woken up to the need of relocating these tollgates. However, this is a job half-done. Time has come to revisit the toll tax policy in the country.
Now, the system is that the government invites tender from private parties to develop infrastructure on a build operate and transfer (BOT) basis. The government opens these tenders for these companies and gives them the contract on making the road within a timeframe. The private party starts developing the project and invests money in it. They set up toll plazas at strategic places where the vehicles have to pay toll in return for using the roads and this way they recover the total money they have invested with interest on the cost of funds.
This presupposes that the government does not have enough time, labour, money and intention to develop basic infrastructure for people. Alternatively, it chooses to abdicate this fundamental duty of proving basic infrastructure such as roads and bridges to citizens to private parties. Secondly, it does not even want to invest in a project where its returns are guaranteed as the end-users will be forced under law to pay user fees.Further, the quantum of these fees will be determined by the authorities and people are always at the receiving end.
More often than not, these private players do not invest money from their pockets. They invariably turn to banks for credit. The funds that banks provide these private players at most competitive rates are from public money. In this way private parties make huge money from people by using public money.
This way, the common man is made to pay twice for using a facility or infrastructure which the government of the day is under constitutional obligation to provide free of cost. Sometimes, toll-plaza employees do not tender exact change to users and they make money by wider margins. All transactions at toll plazas should be electronically executed with smart cards which may be made available at fuel pumps, motels in the highways. This can bring in much-needed transparency in the system.
