Explained: Why AAP has alleged a Rs 6000-crore toll tax ‘scam’ in Delhi

Deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia has demanded a CBI probe into the alleged toll tax scam of Rs 6,000 crore in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi.

The development came a day after the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) levelled allegations against the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) that it collided with two toll tax companies and caused huge loss to the public exchequer.

“I have written to the LG demanding a CBI probe into the toll tax scam of Rs 6,000 crore in Municipal Corporation of Delhi. The money collected from 10 lakh commercial vehicles coming to Delhi everyday was embezzled in connivance,” Sisodia tweeted.

Let’s take a closer look at the alleged Rs 6,000-crore toll scam as well as the claims and counter-claims being made:

What is the MCD’s role?

The MCD collects toll in Delhi.

Toll tax collections are managed by private contractors who make payments as per open tenders to the municipal body.

As per Indian Express, commercial vehicles entering Delhi pay between Rs 700 and Rs 1,400 for an Environment Compliance Certificate, and Rs 100 and Rs 2,000 for toll depending on size and category.

Of Delhi’s 124 border points, RFID toll collection systems have been installed at 13 major entry points, used by nearly 80-85 per cent of commercial vehicle traffic entering the city, as per the report, as per the report.

What has AAP alleged?

As per I_ndian Express_, Sisodia claimed that the MCD awarded a tender to a private company in 2017 for the collection of toll tax, and, as per the contract, the company had to pay Rs 1,200 crore to the MCD every year.

“The company paid the full amount to MCD in the first year, but ever since, in connivance with MCD, stopped giving the collected tax to the civic agency. The corporation, which should have cancelled the tender, blacklisted the company and issued a tender to a new company, but has done nothing for the last four years,” Sisodia alleged.

Sisodia further alleged that in 2021, the MCD awarded the tender to the sister organisation of the previous company at a discount. “The company was given relaxation of Rs 83 crore on account of the pandemic,” Sisodia was quoted as saying by the newspaper.

On Tuesday,  AAP’s MCD in-charge and MLA Durgesh Pathak claimed that there was a large-scale scam in toll tax collection and that it was caused by BJP leaders, who were then in power in MCD, in connivance with two private firms.

“The company only paid the entire money in the first year; from next year, it did not pay more than 10 or 20 per cent of the entire amount. [The> BJP-ruled MCD neither cancelled the contract nor took any action against the company for default in payment,” Pathak on was quoted as saying by The Hindu.

He had said every day, 10 lakh commercial vehicles come to Delhi and tax was collected from those vehicles but it allegedly did not reach the MCD.

“It is a major scam and we demand that this should be investigated. If the matter is properly investigated, senior BJP leaders and MCD officials will be in prison. They have looted thousands of crores of taxpayers’ money,” Pathak had said on Tuesday.

What do the MCD and BJP say?

The MCD in a statement called the allegations as “baseless and without facts”.

Reacting to Sisodia’s allegations, Delhi BJP spokesperson Praveen Shankar Kapoor on Wednesday said there was no such scam in the MCD.

“No scam has taken place in MCD in toll tax collection. Sisodia’s letter to Lt Governor Vinay Kumar Saxena alleging toll tax collection scam in MCD reflects his frustration over the ongoing inquiries into scams in excise department and the school class room construction,” Kapoor said in a statement.

Kapoor clarified that after construction of Eastern-Western corridor in 2018, the commercial vehicles which crossed Delhi to go to other states have stopped coming in and as a result, Delhi’s toll tax collection has dropped by around 70 per cent.

Due to this, the then toll tax collection contractor, MEP Infrastructure Developers Ltd, who had taken annual contract at Rs 1,260 crores, suffered huge loss in collections.

The contractor partially paid MCD and quit the work thereafter, Kapoor said.

“After the contractor quit, the MCD forfeited his security deposit and launched legal recovery proceedings. At present, toll tax collection contract is with a company Shahkar Global which is regularly making proper payments for the last two years,” Kapoor added.

With inputs from agencies

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