• Nod to proposal to increase toll tax on four road sections

Kathmandu, January 2

The Road Board Nepal plans to collect toll tax on all highways and road sections across the country where vehicular movement exceeds 900 units per day from the next fiscal.

RBN is already collecting toll tax on four road sections — Naubise-Mugling section of Prithvi Highway, Narayangadh-Hetauda and Narayangadh-Butwal sections of East-West Highway and Bhairahawa-Bhumahi road section in Rupandehi.

Krishna Singh Basnet, executive director of RBN, said the proposal would be tabled during the next board meeting of RBN.

RBN has fixed toll rates for road sections after calculating tentative vehicular movement in a day. This, according to Basnet, means that initial toll rate will vary depending on the section of the same highway due to the cost of maintenance and length of the road section.

“The rate will be finalised by the board, but initially we have proposed to collect toll tax as per prevalent rates on the four routes,” Basnet told THT.

Toll tax is a special payment or fee collected by the government, basically local authorities, for granting right of passage along a road or over a bridge. These charges are collected for the maintenance of the same road network.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Finance has given its consent to RBN’s proposal to increase toll tax on aforementioned four road sections. As per MoF decision, toll tax has been doubled and it will be implemented after the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport publishes a notice in the Nepal Gazette.

Once implemented, a motorcycle rider would have to make a one-time payment of Rs 10, from five rupees earlier, for plying the aforementioned routes. Such charge on Narayangadh-Hetauda section would be doubled to Rs 60 for heavy vehicles and Rs 20 for light vehicles.

Similarly, toll tax along the Narayangadh-Mugling route, which was fixed at Rs 35 for heavy vehicles and Rs 25 for light vehicles, will be Rs 70 and Rs 50, respectively.

RBN will charge Rs 80 for heavy vehicles and Rs 60 for light vehicles plying the Narayangadh-Butwal route, up from Rs 40 and Rs 30, respectively. The new rates are, however, lower than that recommended by the RBN.

It had proposed hiking toll tax to Rs 95 for heavy vehicles and to Rs 55 for light vehicles plying Narayangadh-Hetauda road section. It had also proposed a toll tax of Rs 125 for heavy vehicles and Rs 75 for light vehicles running along the Narayangadh-Mugling route.

RBN had proposed to increase toll tax to Rs 110 for heavy vehicles and Rs 60 for light vehicles along the Narayangadh-Butwal route. “After hiking toll tax, our annual collection will rise to Rs 200 million from Rs 100 million at present,” Basnet said.