Advocate seeks action into alleged illegal collection at NHAI toll gate

Syllad | The Rising MeghalayaNovember 9, 2021

An advocate from East Jaintia Hills district on Tuesday sought action into the alleged illegal collection from the public at the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI)’s toll gate at Phramer.

In a letter to the NHAI authority, Kynjaimon Amse said that he has noticed that the toll officials’ issues two kinds of toll receipt while payment is being made.

“One receipt which according to me is proper and valid, wherein every details of the vehicle have been entered and this is issued at that very moment the toll is paid and the time and date is also according to the exact time of the payment of the toll tax,” he said.

“However, there is another kind of payment receipt which is issued by the toll gate which seems to be suspicious and illegal. Many times during payment at the toll gate, I have been issued a receipt (receipt enclosed and marked as Slip-2) which has no details of the vehicle and the details of the vehicles are not being entered in the system,” he added.

He further informed that what shocked and surprised him the most is that when such a receipt is issued, in the display bar which is installed near the toll counter, it always shows “CAR EXEMPTED”.

“To my understanding, when such words are displayed it means that the car is exempted from payment of toll tax. This, according to me, is fraudulent and illegal and I highly suspect that such money paid is not accounted for in the NHAI records since these vehicles are marked as EXEMPTED,” Amse stated.

The advocate said he strongly suspect that by marking the vehicle as “EXEMPTED” though toll money is collected, the toll gate is diverting this collected money for them and that the payment is never recorded in the system.

He added, if this act is a fraud then the amount of black money and illicit wealth collected in a day is huge.

“I do not understand why this practice is prevalent at the toll gate and many people who pay the toll tax are not aware of this fact because very few care to look at their payment receipt. I therefore call for clarification from your office on the following stated points. Prima facie there is a gross irregularity in the above stated matter and thus I call for action on this matter,” Amse demanded.