Too high: Contempt of court petition filed on toll tax case

HYDERABAD: In a case concerning toll tax collection and facilities on the 67-kilometre Hyderabad-Mirpurkhas road, a contempt of court petition was filed in the Sindh High Court (SHC) on Thursday.

The petitioners claimed that the South Korean Deokjae Construction Company was violating the SHC order on two counts. They claimed that the company started charging toll tax at the exit points in addition to entry points, which should be the only place of tax collection. After hearing multiple identical petitions, the former bench reserved its order in December 2016 and it was announced on January 17.

The order gave a week to the company to decrease the tax to the rates approved in 2009, waive residents living within five-kilometres of the entry points and charge only Rs10 from residents of Tandojam.

The petition accused the company of charging complete tax from the people of Tandojam and denying the waiver on the proximity basis. A bench comprising justices Naimtullah Phulpoto and Rasheed Ahmed Soomro issued notices to the works and services secretary and Hyderabad-Mirpurkhas dual carriageway's chief manager to submit a compliance report of the order on February 8.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 3^rd, 2017.