New Delhi: Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Wednesday wrote to Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena and demanded a CBI probe into the alleged toll tax scam of Rs 6,000 crore in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi.
The development comes a day after the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) levelled allegations against the MCD that it collided with two toll tax companies and caused huge loss to the public exchequer.
“I have written to the LG demanding a CBI probe into the toll tax scam of Rs 6,000 crore in Municipal Corporation of Delhi. The money collected from 10 lakh commercial vehicles coming to Delhi everyday was embezzled in connivance,” Sisodia said in a tweet.
AAP’s MCD in-charge and MLA Durgesh Pathak had on Tuesday alleged that there was a large-scale scam in toll tax collection and that it was caused by BJP leaders, who were then in power in MCD, in connivance with two private firms.
He had said every day, 10 lakh commercial vehicles come to Delhi and tax was collected from those vehicles but it allegedly did not reach the MCD.
“It is a major scam and we demand that this should be investigated. If the matter is properly investigated, senior BJP leaders and MCD officials will be in prison. They have looted thousands of crores of taxpayers’ money,” Pathak had said on Tuesday.
In a statement, the MCD had later termed the allegations as “baseless and without facts”.
Reacting to Sisodia’s allegations, Delhi BJP spokesperson Praveen Shankar Kapoor on Wednesday said there was no such scam in the MCD.
“No scam has taken place in MCD in toll tax collection. Sisodia’s letter to Lt Governor Vinay Kumar Saxena alleging toll tax collection scam in MCD reflects his frustration over the ongoing inquires into scams in excise department and the school class room construction,” he said in a statement.
Kapoor clarified that after construction of Eastern-Western corridor in 2018, the commercial vehicles which crossed Delhi to go to other states have stopped coming in and as a result, Delhi’s toll tax collection has dropped by around 70 per cent.
Due to this, the then toll tax collection contractor, who had taken annual contract at Rs 1,260 crores, suffered huge loss in collections. Contractor partially paid MCD and quit the work thereafter, he said.
“After the contractor quit, the MCD forfeited his security deposit and launched legal recovery proceedings. At present, toll tax collection contract is with a company Shahkar Global which is regularly making proper payments for the last two years,” Kapoor said.—PTI