The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) is gearing up to hike its revenue from toll collection by at least 33%. However, the surge will not translate into any increase in tax rates for individual vehicles, senior municipal corporation officials aware of the matter said on Monday.
The three-year contract for the existing toll plaza operator, which is overseeing the city’s 126 border points, concludes on April 10. The high-level committee formed by MCD last year to hire a new toll collector has advised an annual minimum reserve price (MRP) of ₹847 crore — 33.18% up than the previous MRP of ₹636 crore per annum.
A senior MCD official said an eight-member committee, headed by an additional commissioner, was formed to assess the toll sector and recommend minimum reserve price and other conditions for selecting a new operator. “As per the assessment of the high-level committee, the number of vehicles entering the city is higher and the private contractor should be paying higher collection rates to MCD,” a member of the committee said.
The official quoted above said that the maximum influx of commercial traffic is reported from Gurugram border, followed by Ghazipur and Kalindi Kunj borders.
However, The number of vehicles entering from each border point remains undisclosed by the civic body.
Currently, MCD has RFID barrier-based toll collection system at 13 of its major entry points, which record 85% of the influx commercial vehicles, and hand-held scanning devices are used at 111 border points. The new toll collector would be responsible overseeing 154 toll lanes and plazas. The 13 biggest toll points with the busiest border points, including Kundli, Rajokri, Tikri, Aya Nagar, Kalindi Kunj, Kapashera, DND toll, Badarpur Faridabad, Shahdara (main), Shahdara (flyover), Ghazipur (main) and Ghazipur (old).
Delhi’s toll collection operates under Section 113 of the Delhi Municipal Corporation Act and the toll collection was outsourced to private contractors from May last year. The environment compensation cess (ECC), which is collected along with toll, was introduced based on an order by the Supreme Court in October 2015. Under the present system, the contractor collects the taxes and pays a fixed amount to MCD, based on the amount quoted in the open tendering process.
According to the official schedule of taxes, MCD charges ₹100 per entry from commercial vehicles, taxis, tempos, among others with monthly passes of ₹3,000; ₹200 per visit is charged from buses and trucks with monthly rate of ₹6,000; ₹300 from six-wheeled trucks with monthly rates of ₹9,000; ₹1,200 per visit from 14-wheeled truck with monthly rate of ₹36,000. ECC from trucks varies from ₹700 to ₹2,600 per entry, based on their category and goods being carried.
Toll collection constitutes a key revenue source for cash-crunched MCD , excepting an income of ₹656.5 crore from the sector in 2022-23 — 7% of the overall revenue of ₹9,506.58 crore — the budget proposals tabled by municipal commissioner Gyanesh Bharti in December said.
