UNB, Dhaka :
The Cabinet on Monday approved the draft of the ‘Toll Policy, 2014’ aiming to bring the existing district, regional and national highways under toll coverage to help ensure development and maintenance of the countrywide road networks as well as boost the government’s revenue earnings.
The approval was given at the regular weekly meeting of the Cabinet held at Bangladesh Secretariat yesterday with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair.
Briefing reporters after the meeting, Cabinet Secretary M Musharraf Hossain Bhuiyan said the proposed policy would make the toll realisation process transparent and modern alongside raising the non-tax revenue.
“The revenue that will come from the toll will go to the Road Development Fund and it will be spent later on development and maintenance of the road infrastructures across the country,” he said.
The Cabinet Secretary said the Communications Ministry realised that there should be a comprehensive toll policy for the country’s road network.
Against this backdrop, the toll policy is being framed by updating the existing Toll Act, 1851.
He said, the countrywide road network that remains only under the Roads and Highways Department will be covered under this policy. There will be three categories of road network-district highways, regional highways and national highways-apart from important national highways like Dhaka-Chittagong.
The main features of the policy are identifying the possible toll realisation infrastructures, realisation method, where the toll will be deposited, on what basis the toll will be determined, fixation of the base toll, keeping the scope for raising the rate of toll and its adjustment.
The toll will be realised in three methods-Operation and Management (O&M) following tendering process, open auction method and finally by the department if there is no bidder available.
The Cabinet Secretary said that there would be 13 categories of vehicles to be covered under the toll where the maximum toll will be 250 percent of the base price while the minimum toll is 2.5 percent of the base price. The base toll will be revised and rationalised in every three years.
The Cabinet on Monday approved the draft of the ‘Toll Policy, 2014’ aiming to bring the existing district, regional and national highways under toll coverage to help ensure development and maintenance of the countrywide road networks as well as boost the government’s revenue earnings.
The approval was given at the regular weekly meeting of the Cabinet held at Bangladesh Secretariat yesterday with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair.
Briefing reporters after the meeting, Cabinet Secretary M Musharraf Hossain Bhuiyan said the proposed policy would make the toll realisation process transparent and modern alongside raising the non-tax revenue.
“The revenue that will come from the toll will go to the Road Development Fund and it will be spent later on development and maintenance of the road infrastructures across the country,” he said.
The Cabinet Secretary said the Communications Ministry realised that there should be a comprehensive toll policy for the country’s road network.
Against this backdrop, the toll policy is being framed by updating the existing Toll Act, 1851.
He said, the countrywide road network that remains only under the Roads and Highways Department will be covered under this policy. There will be three categories of road network-district highways, regional highways and national highways-apart from important national highways like Dhaka-Chittagong.
The main features of the policy are identifying the possible toll realisation infrastructures, realisation method, where the toll will be deposited, on what basis the toll will be determined, fixation of the base toll, keeping the scope for raising the rate of toll and its adjustment.
The toll will be realised in three methods-Operation and Management (O&M) following tendering process, open auction method and finally by the department if there is no bidder available.
The Cabinet Secretary said that there would be 13 categories of vehicles to be covered under the toll where the maximum toll will be 250 percent of the base price while the minimum toll is 2.5 percent of the base price. The base toll will be revised and rationalised in every three years.
