{"id":51636,"date":"2025-08-19T20:35:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-19T15:05:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/?p=51636"},"modified":"2025-08-19T20:35:32","modified_gmt":"2025-08-19T15:05:32","slug":"pac-toll-collection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/19-08-2025\/pac-toll-collection","title":{"rendered":"Public Accounts Committee on Toll Collection"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Syllabus :GS2\/Governance\/GS3\/Economy&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>In News\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament has proposed major changes to toll collection on national highways, including a recommendation to end the practice of perpetual tolling.\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Laws linked to Toll Collection<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Under the <strong>National Highways Act, 1956,<\/strong> the government is empowered to levy <strong>user fees on national highways<\/strong>, with the policy governed by the <strong>2008 NH Fee Rules.\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>These fees are not tied to construction cost recovery but are based on fixed base rates, increasing annually by 3% and partially indexed to inflation (WPI).<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Toll collection<\/strong> can be done by the Union government for publicly funded roads or by concessionaires under BoT, or InvIT models.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>A 2008 amendment allows toll collection to continue indefinitely, even after concession periods end, with revenue then going to the<strong> Consolidated Fund of India.<\/strong>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Toll collections rose significantly\u2014from \u20b91,046 crore in 2005\u201306 to \u20b955,000 crore in 2023\u201324, with \u20b925,000 crore going to the government and the rest to concessionaires.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Recent Recommendations\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has recommended ending or reducing tolls on national highways once construction and maintenance costs are recovered.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The panel criticised the current system of indefinite toll collection, calling it a \u201cregime of perpetual tolling,\u201d and proposed that any tolling beyond cost recovery requires approval from an independent regulatory authority.\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>It also suggested creating <strong>such an authority to ensure transparency <\/strong>and fairness in toll pricing and regulation.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The PAC called for <strong>toll reimbursements during periods of construction when road usage is disrupted.\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>On FASTags, the panel flagged continued<strong> traffic delays due to scanner issues and recommended setting up on-site facilities for users to manage their FASTag<\/strong>s.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Governments Response\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways acknowledged the Committee\u2019s concerns and informed the PAC that it has initiated a <strong>comprehensive study with NITI Aayog to revise the user fee determination framework.<\/strong>\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table class=\"has-background\" style=\"background-color:#ebecf0\"><tbody><tr><td><strong>Do you know?<\/strong><br>&#8211; The<strong> Public Accounts Committee (PAC)<\/strong>, established in 1921 under the <strong>Montague-Chelmsford Reforms<\/strong> and mandated by the Government of India Act, 1919 to examine government accounts to detect irregularities, deviations, and inefficiencies.<br>1. It became a <strong>formal Parliamentary Committee on January 26, 1950.<\/strong>\u00a0<br>2. It is regarded as one of the most prestigious committees and\u00a0 is reconstituted annually and comprises <strong>15 Lok Sabha members <\/strong>elected by proportional representation, along with <strong>7 Rajya Sabha members elected similarly.<\/strong><br>&#8211; <strong>Functions :\u00a0 <\/strong>It is a key parliamentary tool for monitoring government financial activities. It examines appropriation and finance accounts, as well as CAG reports, except for those assigned to the Committee on Public Undertakings.<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Source :TH<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<h3><strong>In News\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n<li class=\"ms-5\">The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament has proposed major changes to toll collection on national highways, including a recommendation to end the practice of perpetual tolling.\u00a0<\/li>\n<p><\/p>\n<h3><strong>Laws linked to Toll Collection<\/strong><\/h3>\n<li class=\"ms-5\">Under the National Highways Act, 1956, the government is empowered to levy user fees on national highways, with the policy governed by the 2008 NH Fee Rules.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li class=\"ms-5\">These fees are not tied to construction cost recovery but are based on fixed base rates, increasing annually by 3% and partially indexed to inflation (WPI).<\/li>\n<li class=\"ms-5\">Toll collection can be done by the Union government for publicly funded roads or by concessionaires under BoT, or InvIT models.<\/li>\n<li class=\"ms-5\">A 2008 amendment allows toll collection to continue indefinitely, even after concession periods end, with revenue then going to the Consolidated Fund of India.<\/li>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/19-08-2025\/pac-toll-collection\" class=\"btn btn-primary btn-sm float-end\">Read\u00a0More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":51660,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-51636","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-current-affairs"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/wp-images.nextias.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/format=auto\/ca\/uploads\/2025\/08\/pac-toll-collection.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51636","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51636"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51636\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51679,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51636\/revisions\/51679"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51660"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}