Through this levy, the development of national waterways is expected to get accelerated and also offer incentives and certainty for private sector to invest in inland waterways transport sector
Lok Sabha passed the Central Road Fund (Amendment) Bill, 2017 on Tuesday that will assist in raising Rs 2,300 crore for developing and maintaining inland waterways through cess on high speed petrol and diesel.
“The Bill seeks to amend the Central Road Fund Act, 2000, through which the cess levied and collected on high speed petrol and diesel is distributed for development of rural roads, national highways, railways, state roads and border area roads. The present bill seeks to allocate 2.5% of the CRF generated to accelerate the development and maintenance of national waterways by reduction of an equal percentage from the share of national highways. This would tentatively generate about Rs. 2,300 crore revenue for national waterways,” read a government release.
Through this levy, the development of national waterways is expected to get accelerated and also offer incentives and certainty for private sector to invest in inland waterways transport sector.
The idea is to have a national waterways to provide cost effective, logistically efficient and environment friendly mode of transport, whose development as a supplementary mode would enable diversion of traffic from the over-congested roads and railways.
At this moment, there are 111 National Waterways in India. “In order to suitably develop national waterways, sustainable source of funding is highly necessary as budgetary support and funds from multilateral institutions are inadequate,” said the statement.
One of the sustainable sources of funding for the development of waterways is to earmark certain per cent. of cess levied and collected on high speed diesel and petrol under the Central Road Fund Act, 2000.
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