A photo of a circular or notification purportedly issued by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) on 17 November 2006 is being shared on social media claiming that all the defence personnel and ex-servicemen including their families are exempted from paying toll tax on producing their identity card. Let’s verify the claim made in the post.
Claim: Photo of a letter issued by NHAI announcing toll tax exemptions to ex-servicemen and their families.
Fact: The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) issued a clarification letter in 2014 stating that the toll tax exemption under the Indian Toll (Army and Air Force) Act, 1901 is available only to the serving armed personnel and emphasized that ex-servicemen are not entitled to the toll tax exemption. A communiqué issued by NHAI in 2008 reportedly stated that this letter dated 17 November 2006, supposedly issued by its Delhi office, is a fake one. Hence, the claim made in the post is False.
When we searched to check whether retired defence servicemen and their families were exempted from paying toll tax, we found a clarification letter issued by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) in 2014 related to the toll exemption for army personnel. MoRTH through the letter clarified that the toll tax exemption under the Indian Toll (Army and Air Force) Act, 1901 is available only to serving armed military personnel and emphasized that ex-servicemen were not entitled to the toll exemption.
Further, MoRTH said, “No exemption is available on use of personal vehicle if it is not used for discharging any official purpose and duty, even if it accompanies the said official. The exemption is available only on production of pass as specified in the Indian Toll (Army and Air Force) Rules, 1942.”
In reply to queries by ‘The Indian Express’ related to the toll tax exemption to the defence personnel, the NHAI re-emphasized under RTI that the retired defence service personnel were not entitled to the toll tax exemption.
When we searched for details related to the letter shared in the post, we found an article published in 2008 by ‘The Tribune’ news website reporting a clarification issued by the NHAI related to this purported letter announcing toll tax exemption to ex-servicemen. NHAI reportedly stated that this letter dated 17 November 2006, supposedly issued by its Delhi office, is fake.
To sum it up, this purported letter of NHAI announcing toll tax exemption to ex-servicemen and their families is a fake one.
