Vehicle users in Andhra Pradesh will have to pay more for fuel if the AP Road Development Corporation has its way. The corporation wants to set up a separate AP Road Fund and raise the money from vehicle users.
Sources said that the proposal was waiting for the Chief Minister’s go-ahead.
Though the corporation, in its proposal, said that the fund’s aim would be to 'streamline various revenue resources and spend judiciously on roads', official sources told this newspaper that it would operate along the lines of the Central Road Fund which gets revenue from cess on petrol and diesel.
“It has been suggested that additional cess be levied on diesel and development fees be charged from users of important roads and newly-laid by-passes in urban areas,” sources pointed out.
The corporation is also mulling pledging the core network roads under state control to financial institutions and raise funds. Besides, a corpus will be arranged from the government along with the state’s share in the CRF, sources added.
The corporation has proposed several initiatives and suggested that it should have own revenue sources instead of depending on the budgetary allocations from the government.