With the way paved for exit of the present SDMC toll tax contractor, the civic body is gearing up to issue short notice tenders to invite new bidders for collection of toll tax alongwith green tax at the entry points of Delhi's border with neighbouring states.
"We have finalised the conditions of the short notice tender which is likely to be floated within this month to rope in new concessionaire for collection of toll tax as well as Environment Compensation Charge (ECC)," said Radhe Shyam Sharma, chairman of Standing Committee of South Delhi Municipal Corporation.
The new tender for toll tax collection will be only for a period of 9 months till December 2016, he said.
The SDMC is the nodal agency for collection of toll tax on behalf of the three municipal corporations in Delhi.
The Supreme Court yesterday allowed SMYR Consortium LLP, which levies toll on behalf of SDMC and court-imposed green cess from commercial vehicles entering Delhi, to exit from its contract with the civic body.
SMYR Consortium had contended that the collection of the court-imposed Environment Compensation Charge (ECC) from commercial vehicles, along with the civic toll, had adversely affected its business.
Sharma said that SMYR had started toll tax collection from July 2015. Three other bidders were there but the tender was allotted to it since it had pledged to pay the highest amount of Rs 551 crore annually to the civic bodies.
The apex court, on October 9, 2015, had imposed ECC of Rs 700 on light commercial vehicles with two axles and of Rs 1,300 on the commercial vehicles with three and four axles. Later, on December 16 last, the court had doubled the ECC to be levied on commercial vehicles entering Delhi.
The court had directed for collection of ECC on an "experimental" basis for four months from November 1 to February 29. The SMYR after its initial refusal to collect the ECC citing practical problems, had finally started collecting the green tax from the night of November 6-7.
The problems had persisted even after that as it had reduced weekly payment to SDMC by 30 per cent claiming a shortfall of equivalent percentage of toll tax revenue due to ECC imposition. In return, SDMC had encashed the bank guarantees of the contractor to cover the reduced payment.
As per official estimates around 50,000 commercial vehicles enter Delhi each day through 124 entry points on its border.
