'It's injustice to pay toll tax after paying hefty road tax'

Senior BJP leader and former minister Laxmi Kanta Chawla on Sunday said "it was sheer injustice to pay toll tax for the use of highways and roads after having paid a heavy amount as road tax".

Senior BJP leader and former minister Laxmi Kanta Chawla on Sunday said "it was sheer injustice to pay toll tax for the use of highways and roads after having paid a heavy amount as road tax".

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In a statement issued here, she pointed out that owning a four-wheeler vehicle in Punjab was getting expensive day-by-day. This was not due to the increase in the prices of four-wheeler vehicles, but the hefty taxes being levied by the government.

"The government had recently hiked the road tax for new cars, trucks, buses by almost eight times. A person purchasing a vehicle for Rs 5 lakh will have to pay around `40,000 as road tax, if he has to bring his vehicle on to the roads and this was nothing but injustice," she added.
Chawla said with toll tax barriers coming up all over the state, plying a private vehicle in Punjab had become more expensive. While going from Amritsar to Chandigarh, the vehicle owners had to shell out money at five toll tax barriers, she added.

"Despite this injustice, the representatives of the people are silent. None of them want to speak out as they do not bear the toll tax burden. Their red beacon vehicles drive past the toll barriers without paying a penny," she added, while urging them to speak out against this "double tax" policy of the government.