PWD minister Chandrakant Patil on Thursday said that the government could not stop toll tax completely. However, the minister also said that light vehicle will not be charged toll anywhere while heavy vehicles will have to pay only at big projects worth more than Rs 200 crore.
The BJP in its 2014 election manifesto had promised to close all toll nakas in the state. However, in his reply in the Legislative Council on Thursday, Mr Patil said that the government would not be able to implement big projects if toll tax is not collected.
The Congress and NCP accused the BJP of reneging on its election promise and fooling the people. However, Mr Patil said that his government is bringing transparency in toll tax collection, which was not there during the previous Congress-NCP regime.
“We are soon coming out with a new toll policy in the state. In the new policy, there will be physical survey of one month to assess the number of vehicles passing on road and duration of toll collection will be decided based on that. If the contractor recovers his investment, 12 per cent interest and 15 per cent profit before the competition of his contact duration, the government will get 90 per cent of toll tax in the remaining period. Also there will be a buy back provision in the contract,” Mr Patil said.
The minister further said that the government could not close toll collection on the Mumbai-Pune Expressway and five Mumbai entry points because there was no buy back clause in the contract made by the previous governments. “There is no provision of how to share the revenue once the project cost is recovered in the current policy,” he said.
Mr Patil said that his government has not approved any BOT project after coming to power and will not approve any till the new toll policy comes in force.
“Now there are only 12 toll nakas operating in the state. When the new policy comes into force, there will be no toll tax for any vehicle on projects worth less than Rs 200 crore. For projects worth more than Rs 200 crore, toll will be charged only for heavy vehicles. Previously, toll tax was imposed on all vehicles on projects worth even Rs 10-20 lakh,” Mr Patil said.
