HYDERABAD: State Roads & Buildings Minister Vemula Prashanth Reddy on Wednesday asked the Centre to not increase toll tax rates. In a letter to Union Minister for Road Transport & Highways Nitin Gadkari, Prashanth Reddy said: “We are given to understand that the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has decided to increase toll rates from April 1, including at 32 toll gates in Telangana. The toll tax being collected by Centre has become a heavy burden on the people of Telangana.”
“In 2014, Rs 600 crores of toll tax was collected in Telangana. It means that the toll tax collection has increased by 300 per cent in these nine years.
This has led to increase in prices of essential goods supplied by trucks as well as hike in bus fares, which in turn made the lives of poor and middle class people very burdensome,” he added. The minister demanded that the Centre immediately roll back the decision to hike toll tax rates.
“From 2014 to till date, the Centre has sanctioned a total of Rs 1,25,176 crore for 113 NH projects and CRIF works in Telangana. But, it spent only Rs 20,350 crore in the last nine years. The National Highways Corporation, however, has collected Rs 9,000 crore in toll tax in the State during the same period. It means that half of the money spent by the Central government has already been collected from the people of Telangana through toll tax,” he added.