New Delhi:
The Aam Aadmi Party has exposed a huge scandal in the MCD, raising concerns about the toll-tax collection regime under the BJP-controlled civic body. AAP Senior Leader and MCD in-charge Durgesh Pathak said, “MCD suffers a loss of Rs 1,180 crores due to the collusion of BJP and Toll Tax companies. Tenders worth Rs 1,200 crores were awarded in 2017 but only Rs 250 crores reached MCD treasuries every year. Same tender was awarded for Rs 786 crores in 2021, that company still owes Rs 232 crores to MCD. As per information at hand, both the companies are owned and operated by the same person. Have written to Delhi LG and MCD Commissioner flagging this scandal. Hope that the culprits will be brought to justice and given the strictest possible punishment.”
Durgesh Pathak said, “Toll tax collection is the largest source of revenue for the BJP-led MCD. The money that is received from all the toll tax collection in Delhi goes to the MCD. There has been a very large-scale scam in the collection of toll tax. In 2017, the MCD gave the rights of collection of toll tax to a firm for an amount of approximately Rs 1200 crore. The company did not pay Rs 950 crore from the contract to the MCD and went to the court. The MCD won the case in the court, but even until now, there has been no follow up in the case nor has any action been taken against the company.”
Pathak added, “What is interesting is that this deal was struck at a cost of Rs 1200 crore in 2017. The same contract was given in 2021 for Rs 786 crore. So the MCD first dropped the rate from Rs 1200 crore to Rs 786 crore. And this new company to whom the contract was given in 2021 has not paid Rs 232 crore to the MCD. So firstly, the Rs 950 crore of the Rs 1200 crore was not retrieved by the MCD – this is that tax amount that the citizens of Delhi have paid to the government. The company collected it for the MCD but did not pay the entire amount. The duration of the tender of this company came to an end and another new tender was floated in 2021, but the amount of this tender was reduced from Rs 1200 crore to Rs 786 crore – whereas, one would naturally expect the amount to increase in the due course of time. Now this new company has not yet paid Rs 232 crore to the MCD. This is how the MCD has been functioning in the last couple of years.
Shri Pathak concluded, “We have also come to know that both these companies are sister companies – which means that it is owned by the same person. So, it is clear that there has been corruption of a large magnitude in issuing these tenders. The Aam Aadmi Party suspects that some leaders of the BJP could also be involved in the ownership of these companies – otherwise it would not be possible to run this scam at such a large scale. Today, I have written a letter on this matter to the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi, Vinai Kumar Saxena, and also to the newly-appointed Special Commissioner for the MCD, Ashwini Kumar and requested them to order an enquiry into this matter and arrest those who are involved in the scam. I have also asked them for an appointment, so that I can meet them and submit to them the documents that I have regarding this scam. I genuinely hope that the concerned officials will look into this issue and arrest those involved in running this scam.”
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