The Supreme Court on Thursday allowed SMYR Consortium llP, which levies toll on behalf of MCD and court-imposed green cess from commercial vehicles entering Delhi, to exit from its contract with the civic body.
SMYR Consortium llP contended that the collection of the court-imposed Environment Compensation Charge (ECC) from commercial vehicles, along with the civic toll, had adversely affected its business.
A Bench of Chief Justice T S Thakur and Justices A K Sikri and R Banumathi permitted the Consortium to exit on the expiry of its contract from the morning of February one.
During the hearing, the Consortium said the imposition of the ECC and the subsequent 100 per cent hike on it had resulted in nearly 35 per cent fall in the vehicles entering the national Capital and had adversely impacted its toll collection and business interest.
The Bench allowed the exit with a direction to the consortium to continue with its operations for next three weeks and pay the municipal body a contractual sum of Rs10.5 crore every week.
It further said that any default in the payment of contracted toll amount of Rs10.5 crore would result in the forfeiture of consortium's bank guarantees.
The court asked Additional Solicitor General Pinki Anand, appearing for South Delhi Municipal Corporation, to put in place an alternate mechanism to collect the toll and the ECC.
The apex court, on October 9, 2015, had imposed ECC of Rs700 on light commercial vehicles with two axles and of Rs1,300 on the commercial vehicles with three and four axles.
Then by its December 16 order, it had doubled the ECC to be levied on commercial vehicles entering Delhi.
The Supreme Court-appointed mediator Harish Salve too failed to find solution to the most vexing problem. On Thursday, Salve informed the court that no solution can be reached between the two parties and the court shall take its due course of action over the issue.
The concessionaire has been claiming huge drop in tax collection since the introduction of green tax and has expressed unwillingness to bear extra burden in tax collection. The SDMC, the nodal agency for tax collection, has been claiming that there was a provision in the agreement hence the operator is bound to comply with the order.
Sources said after hearing the two parties, senior advocate Salve told the court that “no amicable decision could be reached”. Therefore, it is upon the court to take the final decision, he said. Meanwhile, rumours have it that the toll contractor might give up the toll tax collection duty. If that happens, SDMC will be left with no toll tax contractor and it will have to undergo the due process of issuing tenders to get a new contractor.
The stand-off emerged after the concessionaire paid less amount than the fixed amount to the SDMC in last few months. They claimed 30 per cent decline in green tax collection as the entry of commercial vehicles into the city has been reduced by over 20 per cent.