Call to remove toll tax collection point at KKH

MANSEHRA: Civil society organisations, traders, transporters, and the lawyers on Sunday demanded of the federal government to remove the toll tax collection plaza on the Karakoram Highway near here.

“Transporters and motorists have already been paying toll taxes at four points. This is unjust, and the government should remove the plaza on the KKH here,” Barrister Sangeen Sultan Khan told a presser here.

Flanked by members of various segments of society, he said that the National Highway Authority (NHA) had conditionally reinstalled the toll plaza at Khatain Da Galla on the KKH after the public had dismantled it many years ago.

“The NHA has been frequently increasing toll rates. Recently, it raised the single-entry toll from Mansehra to Abbottabad to Rs70, which is completely unacceptable to us,” Sangeen Sultan Khan said.

He pointed out that Mansehra was the only district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa where motorists were charged toll tax even for intra-city travel and commuting to neighbouring Abbottabad.“Residents of Abbottabad and Mansehra frequently travel between the two cities multiple times a day for emergency trips for shifting patients, employment and studies and are burdened with extra financial costs,” he pointed out.

He said they would not only hold street protests but also file a petition in the Peshawar High Court seeking the removal of the toll tax plaza.Meanwhile, the transporters’ union and traders also held a separate press conference demanding the removal of the toll tax plaza here.

“The government has repeatedly increased toll taxes, putting an extra burden on transporters,” Jan Alam, president of the traders’ body, said.Flanked by other office-bearers, he said toll charges from Mansehra to Peshawar had risen to Rs2,800 per trip, Rs2,400 to Rawalpindi, and Rs2,200 to Mardan.General Secretary Pervez Khan said the transporters would actively participate in the civil society’s protest to remove the toll tax plaza here.