It is the time for costs to increase all across the automotive industry. After the increase in the prices of almost all car manufacturers, the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) has announced that it has increased the toll rates across the country by 5 per cent to 7 per cent for motorists using national highways. NHAI has 372 toll plazas in the country and the toll rates will be hiked at almost all of these toll plazas. NHAI said that every year, it revises the toll rates right before the new financial year starts. The toll rates are revised using wholesale price index (WPI) and can vary from toll plaza to toll plaza in the same state as well.
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The revised rates have already been in effect from the midnight of 31st March, 2018. NHAI has also increased the rate for monthly passes (monthly passes are for motorists who make the trip more than 50 times a month). The flip side of this is that the cost of anything and everything that is transported by roads and highways will go up. This means that the cost of essential commodities could go up as well.
In fact, a report by Times of India says that various transport union personnel have already confirmed that the cost of transporting goods by national highways will go up in accordance with the rise in the toll rates. The biggest problem that the highway carriers facing is that the some of the highways have increased toll rates but the surface quality of the highways are not up to the mark and leave a lot to be desired.
This is the reason that the transport unions across the country are against the hike in toll rates. We will keep you updated as more developments happen on this topic.
Source: Times Of India (Deepak Lavania)
