UP govt expedites process to recover Rs 650cr dues from toll collection firms

Time of India

3 days ago

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Lucknow: The UP govt has to recover more than Rs 650 crore dues from the highway toll management companies.
Following the Bhadohi case — where a Delhi-based firm secured lease for toll collection in UP by paying just Rs 100 stamp duty instead of Rs 63 cores — the stamp and registration department carried out an audit to find the status of all pending recovery cases.
The stamp and registration department has started reaching out to the district administration in 31 districts to expedite the recovery process.
A total of 95 cases pertaining to evasion of stamp duty by toll companies have been detected. While the majority of cases are pending with operators who entered into an agreement with the National Highways Authority of India, operators engaged by the Uttar Pradesh Expressways Industrial Development Authority for toll collection over expressways are also yet to make payments.
Among the 95 cases, 23 cases are sub-judice while 72 cases are pending before collectors in various districts. Among the 72, recovery proceedings have been initiated against the promoters of 17 private agencies engaged for toll collection.
UP stamp department minister Ravindra Jaiswal said, "The dues collected from the toll operators will be used to upgrade the public infrastructure and fund the social sector schemes.
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Senior officials concerned have been asked to follow up on the old cases pending before courts and magistrates."
While the company engaged by NHAI to manage the Meerut expressway has the highest stamp duty dues of around Rs 26 crore, the one managing the Lucknow–Rae Bareli national highway has to pay Rs 10 crore. Interestingly, 15 out of 95 toll operators had entered into an agreement with NHAI on stamp paper worth Rs 100, whereas, as per the estimates prepared by the department, such companies need to cough up Rs 130.40 crore.
Though in some cases the procedure to recover the amount was initiated more than five years ago, the matter picked pace only from Oct last year after the state govt urged the district collectors to expedite the process. In July last year, the Supreme Court while disposing of a similar case from Madhya Pradesh had dubbed the concession agreement between toll operators and NHAI as a lease, putting the liability of paying the stamp duty on the agreement value over the value mentioned in the contract.