Pune: The statistics related to toll tax published by the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) on its website has revealed that 330,797 vehicles did not pay the mandatory toll tax on Pune-Mumbai Expressway in December 2021.
Right to Information (RTI) activist Vivek Velankar in 2016 had complained to the RTI chief seeking publication of toll earning figures and vehicles paying at the toll booths of Pune-Mumbai Expressway on the official website on a regular basis. Following the complaint, the authorities have been regularly updating the website and releasing earnings and vehicle data on their website.
According to the official data, 330,979 vehicles did not pay toll tax on the expressway and the same has been attributed in the category of exempt and violators for December 2021.
However, how many of them came under ‘exempt‘ and ‘violated the rule‘ categories have not been clearly stated in the chart.
“The information regarding the exempt and violators category has been deliberately suppressed. At the most, police, army, MLAs, MLCs, parliamentarians and ministers are exempted from paying toll tax. It is indeed surprising that the heavy vehicles and multi-axle vehicles are being shown as violators when these vehicles most of the time travel at a very slow speed on the highway. Also, the clear demarcation or categorisation of violator and exempt vehicle has not been done which raises suspicion. The authorities need to come clean on this pertinent issue of exemption and violation as citizens are paying toll tax and the entire process demands accountability,” Velankar claimed.
He said that an average of 10,000 vehicles were not paying toll as per the information given by the MSRDC authorities on the website and demanded a probe.
Velankar had earlier approached the Bombay High Court through a public interest litigation (PIL) seeking an end to toll tax collection on Pune-Mumbai Expressway. The PIL claimed that the toll collected post August 19, 2019, by the company should be declared as “illegal”.
Rajesh Patil, superintending engineer, MSRDC recharge for Pune-Mumbai Expressway, could not be reached for comments despite repeated attempts. Messages to his mobile phone number went unanswered.
Toll tax at e-way
Dec 2020
No of vehicles: 1,332,078
Earnings: ₹471,544,440
Dec 2021
No of vehicles: 1,823,369
Earnings: ₹506,178,629
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