NHAI to Incur Revenue Losses of 1,822 Crore on Account of 40-Day COVID-19 Lockdown: ICRA

National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) is prone to incur income losses of Rs 1,822 crore attributable to suspension of toll assortment on nationwide highways in the course of the 40-day lockdown, ranking company Icra stated on Wednesday.

The income loss for NHAI operated toll plazas is estimated at Rs 821 crore, whereas the compensation to BOT Concessionaires underneath power majeure (political) occasion is estimated at Rs 1,001 crore, Icra stated in a press release.

The Ministry of Road Transportation and Highways (MORTH) has suspended tolling on all nationwide highways, following the 21-day lockdown as per Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) tips, which has now been prolonged by one other 19 days until May 3.

As per the MORTH round dated March 25, 2020, the toll suspension can be handled as power majeure occasion and thereby ends in a loss to NHAI. “The total estimated loss to NHAI due to lockdown is likely to be Rs 1,822 crore. With goods traffic (both inter and intrastate) allowed to ply from April 20, 2020, onwards, in case if the toll suspension is revoked with effect from April 20, the loss could reduce to Rs 1,181 crore,” the assertion stated.

Rajeshwar Burla, Vice President, Corporate Ratings, Icra stated, “There are around 570 operational toll plazas on the national highways across the country which includes both public-funded (under NHAI) and projects under build-operate-transfer (BOT) (Toll) and toll-operate-transfer (TOT) mode. For the BOT Toll and TOT projects, under force majeure (political) event, the revenue loss is compensated in the form of extension in concession period”.

In addition, 100 per cent of operations and upkeep (O&M) and curiosity prices are reimbursed for the BOT Toll tasks for the affected interval, he stated, including this may quantity to 50-55 per cent of lack of income incurred by these tasks.

Whereas for tasks that are public-funded (at present being tolled by NHAI by toll contractors), the suspension would lead to a direct income loss for NHAI.

The assertion stated the suspension could also be revoked from April 20, 2020, as the products site visitors is allowed to ply as per new MHA tips through which case, if toll suspension is revoked from April 20, the loss may scale back to Rs 1,181 crore.

Icra stated the whole quantity of toll collected by the 570 toll plazas in FY2019 stood at Rs 24,396 crore, averaging Rs 66.84 crore per day which was assumed to extend at Three per cent thereafter.

Drawing parallels with de-monetisation in November 2016, Icra notice stated that after the 24-day interval toll suspension submit de-monetisation, NHAI provided compensation to the toll street SPVs underneath power majeure political clauses and incurred loss within the vary of Rs 650-700 crore.

Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari yesterday stated that the NHAI could also be directed to compensate the losses incurred.

“In view of COVID-19, it has been ordered to temporarily suspend the collection of toll at all toll plazas across India,” Gadkari had introduced final month.

This won’t solely scale back inconvenience to emergency providers but in addition save crucial time, the minister has stated.

NHAI had rolled out the digital toll assortment programme throughout India in December on its over 500 toll plazas whereas doubling toll costs from the automobiles coming into FASTag lanes with out the tag.

In order to offer prime significance to current FASTag customers, dissuade defaulters and additional encourage adoption of FASTags by nationwide freeway commuters, automobiles with out FASTags coming into the FASTag lane had been being charged double the toll price, and final month over Rs 20 crore had been collected from 20 lakh automobiles encroaching FASTag lanes throughout India.

About two crore FASTags have been issued by a number of Point of Sale (PoS) places. FASTag transaction by NHAI final month had crossed 4 million per day.

In order to additional enhance digital assortment of consumer price through FASTag at nationwide highways price plazas, NHAI had additionally waived off the FASTag price of Rs 100 for NHAI FASTag.