NH8 toll operator cheats on 16L/day: KPMG survey

September 27, 2013

Dipak K Dash, TNN |

NEW DELHI: KPMG conducted a week long, 24X7 traffic study in July at the Gurgaon toll expressway and has projected on the basis of the sample survey that due to under-reporting of at least 79,000 passenger car units (PCUs) daily by the operator NHAI lost about Rs 24 crore in 10 months. Significantly, tolling was suspended for over a month during this period due to a Punjab and Haryana High Court order.The survey was commissioned by the authority’s vigilance wing after CVC asked for it. Under-reporting of traffic at the toll plaza impacts NHAI’s revenue share. As per the contract norms, revenue from vehicles beyond 1.3 lakh PCUs in a day is shared equally between NHAI and the operator, DGSCL.Though the survey was conducted at all the three toll plazas on the expressway, the authority has first taken up the 32-lane plaza where revenue share is happening. Details emerging from the study show that on July 23, the difference in traffic as reported by DGSCL and that measured by KPMG was 1.57 lakh PCUs. In fact, on that day, DGSCL’s figure was barely half the number given by KPMG.Authority officials said that the average daily traffic during the little over 10 months when tolling happened works out to around 2.55 lakh PCUs while the company kept showing only 1.81 lakh PCUs. The number of vehicles was first manually counted at each toll gate indicating the category of vehicle. NHAI officials said that videography was also done to verify the details. “We will also submit the report in the court to prove our point,” an NHAI official said. A DGSCL spokesperson said, “We have not yet got the report and can only respond once we are able to go through it. The matter is currently being heard by Delhi High Court.”

NHAI officials said the authority lost revenue because of under-reporting of traffic and hence the detection of the major leakage was enough to strengthen its argument that there had been a substantial revenue loss. “This is due to developer’s default in managing the toll plaza. The notice has been sent in continuation of our show cause letter for termination issued on March 8,” an NHAI official said.

In the letter, NHAI had mentioned that since DGSCL did not give details of exempted vehicles, the authority had suspected that the company was diverting toll revenue instead of depositing it in the escrow account and not reporting actual revenues thereby causing loss to public exchequer.

Source-http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com