Indian high commission on Johnson’s list of ‘defaulters’

LONDON: Britain’s new foreign secretary Boris Johnson has informed the House of Commons that more than £95 million are owed by foreign missions, including nearly

LONDON: Britain’s new foreign secretary Boris Johnson has informed the House of Commons that more than £95 million are owed by foreign missions, including nearly £4.5 million by the Indian high commission, who refuse to pay London’s congestion charge.

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Johnson released the list in a written reply last week that includes parking fines owed by foreign missions and details of 11 serious offences committed by diplomats of nine missions who have avoided prosecution due to diplomatic immunity.

Every vehicle entering a zone in central London marked by the letter “C” needs to pay £11.50 per day at certain times as congestion charge. Failure to pay invites a penalty of £130. The US with £10.6 million tops the list of nearly 70 London-based missions who do not pay the charge. India is fifth. The charge was introduced in 2003 to raise funds for London’s transport infrastructure.

Described by Transport for London (TfL) officials as the ‘stub born minority’, the missions refuse to pay the charge for their vehicles on the ground that it is a ‘tax’ and as such they are exempted from paying it under the Vienna Convention.

A spokesperson of the Indian high commission told Hindustan Times :“We believe that the congestion charge imposed by the UK authorities was not a service charge but a tax, which should be exempted under the Vienna Convention and therefore the Indian high commission, like several diplomatic missions in London, do not pay the congestion charge.”