[VeluM]

I don't think it is a good idea. We already pay road tax, which doesn't seem to be used to build good roads within the state/city we live, then why pay more.

Why have a toll at all? The government has a budget allocated for roads (central as well as state), and they seem to be lathering at the mouth for more road tax, so what exactly have I already paid for?

[sumeethaldankar]

I rather have the government reduce the toll than make a new car owner pay for roads he may never use.

For eg; the toll rates for private vehicles should not be more than 10 Rs in my humble opinion.

This way the new car guy becomes happy as he is not charged for having to pay for other's usage of roads while the guy who actually uses the tolled road is happy as the charges have reduced.

[CANPUSH]

Further to what @CoolFire has mentioned there will be resistance from Toll collecting companies as they do not always show the real number and the additional income is pocketed by them. better option is to collect toll trough RFID cards that will allow you to pass through toll gate without being stopped, yet the toll will be collected through electronic prepaid cards.

[arnabchak]

Originally Posted by sumeethaldankar

I rather have the government reduce the toll than make a new car owner pay for roads he may never use.

For eg; the toll rates for private vehicles should not be more than 10 Rs in my humble opinion.

This way the new car guy becomes happy as he is not charged for having to pay for other's usage of roads while the guy who actually uses the tolled road is happy as the charges have reduced.

That is a great idea. Infact, I was pleasantly surprised when I drove from Mumbai to Diu(approx. 2200 kms round trip).

The entire stretch from my place in Gujarat(Anand) to Diu had a nominal Rs 250/- toll(round trip) for almost 1350 kms.

But the trip between Mumbai to Anand(a distance of approx. 900 kms, round trip) had a toll of Rs. 950/-.

It is a great idea to keep a nominal toll for private cars. Would really make highway junkies like me

[pvgeorge]

Originally Posted by bejoy

If the new proposal comes through, I wonder why are we paying life time tax on the vehicle which is intended for the same purpose? Of course one goes to the state govt and the new proposal is for the central govt.

I live in Kerala and there is no toll road ( or any road worth making it a toll road) in the 100 Kms vicinity.
be it a 2% charge on new vehicle/ additional burden on fuel.. why should I be paying as I rarely use it ( once in probably 2-3 Yrs).

The present setup will turn out to be economical for me... the more one uses toll roads, the more he/ she will be charged

George V

[Guna]

My idea of ideal world is one where you pay the road tax as you use instead of paying blanket tax upfront. Paying toll comes close to this idea as you pay for the use. Proposal to tax the new car owners for the infrastructure they may not even use is a step in backward direction.

[binaiks]

Originally Posted by pvgeorge

I live in Kerala and there is no toll road ( or any road worth making it a toll road) in the 100 Kms vicinity.
be it a 2% charge on new vehicle/ additional burden on fuel.. why should I be paying as I rarely use it ( once in probably 2-3 Yrs).

The present setup will turn out to be economical for me... the more one uses toll roads, the more he/ she will be charged

George V

In the coming days, almost all the National Highways would become tolled roads. And, Kerala does have tolled rads.

[naveen.raju]

Give us 6 lane roads with flyovers that will ease traffic and makes a smooth run then it makes sense. I dont use any toll roads on a frequent basis, only couple of long distance drives to Bangalore. The one toll road near my place is filled with busy junctions, no flyovers and pot hole filled bridge. The bridge is so pathetic that the district collector ordered the NHAI to repair it else toll collection will be suspended. That's the condition here so no point in bringing in this rule IMHO.

[Olympal]

If private cars are charged a 2% cess, then very soon the truckers and taxi lobbies will also demand an exemption from toll gate payment and offer to pay the one time 2% cess. As others have pointed out in this thread, private cars are infrequent users of toll roads while commercial vehicles use them the most. The government must simply exempt private cars from any cess and charge a one-time 2% tax only to commercial vehicles.

[rpunwani]

IMHO the more you drive, the more you should pay. As I mentioned in my earlier post, I would have no objection to paying 2% chess on fuel. On a long drive from say Mumbai to Bangalore, I would probably save more than 2% fuel by not having to wait at the tolls.

Alternatively, an option is to have a Prepaid Electronic Cash Card stuck on the windshield and make certain lanes at toll stations a drive thru for cars with Cash Cards. Non frequent users of toll roads who do not have the Cash Card would have to endear the queues at the toll booths.

Companies or States could use different software systems for collecting tolls as long as the scanners recognise the Electronic Cash Cards (which could be standardised).

Usage of cameras & strict enforcement of payment would be required. Needless to say, heavy penalties should apply to errant users. Maybe subsidise the regular users ??

[ashish_BHP]

I do not feel its a good idea of increasing registration cost for maintaining tolls for highways. It would be injustice who buy cars just for some comfort and travel between point A to point B within the city. It would mean like make others pay for some part of your highway enthusiasm. Unfair. Already fuel costs are burning pockets ,taxes are being fed to government regularly, and fuel prices increase every fortnight..There is no substance to think of in both the points.

[vibbs]

Pay as you use is a good concept. However in a country like India, where there is lack of modern infrastructure for toll collection and also poor civic sense among road users, this leads to chaos at busy Toll plazas. Thereby resulting in huge losses due to fuel wastage etc.

Having electronic toll collection systems implemented all over the country looks very difficult to me in India.

But even then a blanket tax like 2% on all cars irrespective of the usage does not seem the right way, at least to me.

What I believe could be a viable alternative is a middle path. Instead of a blanket tax on new cars purchased, add INR 2 on every litre of fuel filled.

Now, the more you use the road, more you will burn the fuel and more you will pay. A car running 2000 Kms a month will be using 133.33 Litres of Fuel (assuming a mileage of 15Kmpl). He will pay a tax of INR 266. Commercial vehicles will use more fuel and hence pay more tax.

Now the other aspect of this is, the Govt. needs to ensure that there is no preferential treatment of any roads and strive to bring all roads in the country at par with each other (which is incidentally what all of us want). So no matter where you drive, you pay tax for the road and all roads are good. Construction and maintenance of the roads can be outsourced and paid from this amount that is collected.

But this requires a very efficient system in place that ensures tax collected is used exactly how it is supposed to be used, which if it was there in the first place, we wouldn't have needed majority of Toll roads anyway.

So we are back to square 1 of manned toll booths and unending queues.

Sorry for the long post

[Starfire]

I think this decision will receive mixed reviews as 2% tax is not a walkover figure.
For example: A person buying a car costing a million INR will have to pay 20000 rupees as tax? then i can imagine the emotions of a guy buying a something like a Superb and spending around half a lakh on a new tax!

While it might be well appreciated by people who travel long distances trough cities everyday, the people who use maybe their 2nd or 3rd car for in city travel will frown (imagine the thought of paying tax for no reason?)

[CoolFire]

Originally Posted by CANPUSH

Further to what @CoolFire has mentioned there will be resistance from Toll collecting companies as they do not always show the real number and the additional income is pocketed by them. better option is to collect toll trough RFID cards that will allow you to pass through toll gate without being stopped, yet the toll will be collected through electronic prepaid cards.

As pointed out earlier, this will require 100% compliance, including a nationwide mechanism to collect pending dues. Can't think of it as long as vehicle taxation remains a state subject. Changing that requires a constitution amendment, which again is impossible under the present situation.
Only work around would be an efficient inter-state settlement mechanism for all vehicle related dues, including the much maligned, disfunctional road tax refund system.

As an aside, what is the present system to penalise vehicles from one states caught on camera for over speeding in another state? zilch. I have envied such cars merrily zooming past cameras in Kerala.

[sachinpk]

On NHAI maintained toll roads, I guess the major share of tolls goes to the folks who built it, and a lesser share to the NHAI. The state governments don't get any share on that. The road tax which states collect are meant for the roads maintained by state PWD (normal roads and state highways).

When I read the news I was in favour of having a one time payment, considering the time I save for I don't have to wait in queue to pay tolls. But then reading this thread made me realize that many of the car owners would have to pay up for roads which they don't plan to use any way .

A better option would be to have automatic toll collection facilities (like they have in US etc.). Off-course because people lack civic sense we will have to still have manned toll booths. But what the toll booths can do is to have exclusive tracks for vehicles having RFID devices. Elevated highway at Bangalore does work in this principle. And perhaps have some inducement scheme encouraging users to go for RFID devices. Eg: I pay Rs.1000 for the device, and Rs.2000 but can have unlimited travel on all tolled highways in South India for next 3 months.

Originally Posted by CoolFire

As an aside, what is the present system to penalise vehicles from one states caught on camera for over speeding in another state? zilch. I have envied such cars merrily zooming past cameras in Kerala.

Ideally Kerala Police or Motor Vehicle Department of Kerala (depends on whose camera trapped you) have to inform the RTO which issued the vehicle number. So if the vehicle is KA51, Kerala folks have to reach out to the legendary Electronics City RTO of Bangalore. And they have to provide the address of the rule violator. Then a notice goes to the violator on this address. All this is still a manual process and so I don't know even if the authorities follow this.

One thing K.P and Kerala MVD can do is to have black-berry like devices which can check up pending fines in Kerala state. Like what Bangalore Traffic police does. So such over-speed violations gets recorded and the vehicle has a chance to get caught during subsequent visits to Kerala. The only people who would escape would be infrequent visitors.

But Kerala still uses manual checking using speed radars, alco-meters etc. With police men and RTO having daily (unofficial) targets chances of the over-speeders getting caught are very high. The state can also provide all Highway Police vehicles (around 44 of them) with speed radars. Currently all of them have alco-meters readily available. 44 Highway Police squads with speed radars + speed cameras on all state and national highways, that would make one strong enforcement!!