NEW DELHI: The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) on Monday flagged significant financial irregularities in toll operations managed by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) stating that road users had borne undue financial burden of Rs 180.44 crore due to non-compliance with prescribed fee rules.
The CAG, in its report tabled in the Parliament on Monday, found that NHAI failed to reduce toll charges to 40 per cent as mandated under the National Highway Fee Rules, 2008, when taking over toll collection after the expiry of a concession period, resulting in undue financial burden of Rs 180.44 crore to road users.
During the review of toll operations of NHAI in Gujarat and Maharashtra, the auditor observed that ineffective implementation of the directives of the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways and policy circulars of NHAI resulted in loss of revenue of Rs 9.60 crore.
The report also highlighted delay in making settlement payments to a concessionaire resulted in loss of toll revenue Rs 9.68 crore to NHAI. The auditor noted that the absence of a uniform system has led to data-migration challenges and operational inefficiencies, urging NHAI to address the gap on priority.
The auditor clearly suggested that NHAI needs to standardise the Toll Management System (TMS) used by various system integrators so that data-migration challenges and others are avoided.