It is the prime responsibly of a democratic state to act as a guardian of the interest of the bereft, downtrodden and poor people of the society, especially those who are hardly able to earn their livelihood. Almost eighteen months after coming into power, the government has been consistent in nothing but disappointing people in general, especially its voters. Instead of improving upon governance, the government is focusing on burdening the people by imposing more taxes and levies. The government has, so far, failed to improve the economic conditions of the country; pushing back any serious investment, even by the local investors and, hence, making the life of a common man even worse by imposing more taxes. The latest levies in the bucket are the increased toll taxes on not only national highways but also on intra-city roads i.e. the increase in toll tax on the Lahore Ring Road.
Where the latest increase in the toll tax levy is questionable on various legal grounds including lack of authority, transparency of the process and whether it may even be imposed considering it is mainly imposed on the citizens, living within the territorial jurisdiction of District Lahore, its excessiveness is the major factor, due to which it should be withdrawn immediately. The revised toll taxes are as follows:
This is not the first time that the toll tax on Lahore Ring Road has been increased but this is very frequent to previous four times since its imposition from Rs. 10 for car, Rs. 20 for the wagon, Rs. 50 for bus and Rs. 60 rupees for all types of trucks, to Rs. 35 for car, Rs. 70 for the wagon, Rs. 175 for bus and Rs. 210 for pickup/loader and Rs. 350 for truck/trailer which is up to 600 per cent approx. The worrying factor is that like the present, this has been done quite freely without giving any justifiable reason or after following a transparent lawful process. The rapid increase in the toll tax has been specifically severely affecting the residents of localities living near the Lahore Ring Road, such as residents of Khokhar Road Lahore, who under the forced circumstances frequently use the Lahore Ring Road for their routine business, Medical Care, revenue purpose, private jobs, schooling of their children etc.
Instead of improving upon governance, the government is focusing on burdening the people by imposing more taxes and levies
The purpose of construction of the Lahore Ring Road was to take considerable intra-city traffic load so that to decrease the overall congestion within the city, however, the aforesaid unreasonable toll has discouraged and forced the motorists to avoid the ring road and use the already overloaded roads, hence defeating its purpose.
The imposition of such toll tax for use of a road to travel intra-city is questionable on the ground that the same is violative of its fundamental rights guaranteed under the Constitution of Islamic Republic of Pakistan, 1973. It is a trite law based on various judgements of the Supreme Court of Pakistan that all decisions by state functionaries are required to be a reasonable exercise of their power. No public functionary should exercise discretion arbitrarily or capriciously. This is because the principal (the people), has vested state agencies with the discretionary power of an administrative nature. Such delegation of authority by the principal is essential to the efficient functioning of the government, however, given the possibility of the agent’s deliberate or negligent deviation from the best interests of the beneficiary, often the courts are approached to enforce fiduciary obligations under certain circumstances. A breach of the duty of loyalty, such as in the case of a self-dealing transaction or one involving conflict of interest, will trigger heightened scrutiny by the Honourable Courts. Considering this, the Government and Lahore Ring Road Authority must take immediate notice of the situation and immediately withdraw the aforesaid levy and rapid increase. The competent authority must also take steps to address the issue of structuring the discretion by introducing appropriate rules under the applicable law. This will ensure that the discretion regarding the increase of toll tax, if applicable, is not being exercised without regularizing it, organizing it, producing order in it so that decision will achieve the high quality of justice in the interest of the public. In case the legal formalities for imposing the toll tax are met, the competent authority should consider the following as a way forward:
a. the rates first approved as mentioned hereinabove (starting from Rs.10 for the car), maybe restored immediately;
b. The toll tax may only be collected once in 24-hours from a motorist using the ring road multiple times to save the people from heavy double charges of tax;
c. a distance-based toll structure may be immediately enforced, where shorter distances would require lesser tolls e.g. toll based on kilometres covered by a driver during entry and exit from the ring road;
d. Toll tax may be further rationalized because Ring Road is not fully completed however toll tax for full/complete road is being collected.
e. Residents/motorists living within 5 KM from entry point may be exempted from toll tax by providing special tokens/coupons as ordered by the Division Bench of Sindh High Court in a similar matter (2018 YLR 117).
The writer is a High Court Advocate