Few takers for auction of Solan toll gates

Barely two parties turned up for the annual auctioning of the toll gates of Himachal Pradesh's Solan district, which borders Haryana and Punjab.

Despite this the state excise and taxation department managed to enhance its revenue by almost 21 per cent compared with the previous fiscal year by procuring auctioning of nine barriers in the district for Rs 10.27 crore yesterday.

Many contractors stayed away from the bidding process as they, "wanted the excise department to make the policy commensurate with the vehicular traffic." They wanted the government to raise the toll tax on vehicles as it had not been raised for the last three years.

Officials said Ms Rana & Company was able to grab the prestigious Parwanoo unit, which has four barriers including, the main Parwanoo barrier near Kalka and the Baddi-Barotiwala-Parwanoo-Sector 4 barriers for Rs 8.75 crore.

The five other barriers of Deerowal,Bagheri,Dhabota,Navgaon and Gullerwala were auctioned for Rs 1.42 crore by Rana & Company again.

Many contractors stayed away from the bidding process as they, "wanted the excise department to make the policy commensurate with the vehicular traffic."

They wanted the government to raise the toll tax on passing vehicles as it hadn't been raised for the last three years.

Some wanted the government to add three more barriers at Shahpur, Nankpura and Kallawali as this was serving as a escape route for those wanting to evade the toll tax in the industrial belt in the region.

The Confederation of Indian Industry(CII) has recently demanded the Himachal Pradesh government remove barriers on state borders to facilitate business in the hill state.

"The government needs to remove barriers set up for collecting taxes on the state borders.This is a major hindrance for business and wastes a lot of time," said Rajendra Guleria, chairman CII state unit told Business Standard.

"The barriers should be replaced by surprise checks instead of checking every vehicle entering the state boundary," said Guleria. "The state government is collecting taxes of about Rs 35 crore (Rs 350 million) at toll barriers which can be made up by imposing taxes by other means.

"The state budget needs to be more friendly to industry by ensuring 'business without barriers'," he said.