ISLAMABAD: Audit officials revealed during a meeting of Public Accounts Committee National Highway Authority (NHA) failed to recover nearly Rs16 billion in fines imposed on overloaded trucks operating on national highways and motorways.
The PAC, chaired by Moeen Aamir Pirzada, expressed serious concern over massive revenue losses and irregularities within Ministry of Communications. These included non-recovery of Rs26 billion in toll taxes, failure by NHA to recover fines from overloaded vehicles, disputed audit figures, and alleged duplicate payments in major road projects.
The committee examined audit objections related to Ministry of Communications for financial year 2023–24.
Audit officials told committee penalties totaling Rs17 billion were imposed on approximately 18,000 overloaded vehicles. However, only around Rs1 billion was recovered. They added official records clearly showed number of overloaded trucks passing through toll plazas.
Responding to audit observations, Secretary of Ministry of Communications rejected the figures, saying audit was based on assumptions. He said more than 90 percent of highways are now covered by axle load control mechanisms, and that data cited by auditors related to a period before modern systems were installed.
He informed committee NHA currently operates 236 axle load checking systems, and that audit figures predated November 2023, when these systems were not fully operational. “At present, axle load monitoring is being carried out on 90pc of national highways and motorways”, he said.
The Secretary reiterated audit figures were “assumptive” and not officially verified. This prompted a strong response from representatives of Auditor General’s office, who maintained data had originated from department itself.
“This is your own data”, the Auditor General’s representative said, adding department could re-verify the figures if necessary.
The PAC directed Ministry of Communications and audit officials to reconcile figures jointly before next meeting.
While reviewing audit objections related to unrecovered toll revenues exceeding Rs26 billion, audit officials informed committee NHA itself had acknowledged outstanding amount.
They further disclosed large sums were still recoverable, including Rs1.1 billion from Federal Board of Revenue (FBR).
The Secretary of Ministry of Communications stated some deductions had already been made by FBR.
Expressing concern over growing volume of uncollected toll revenues, committee member Shahida Akhtar Ali said increasing figures reflected serious administrative shortcomings.
The acting chairman directed officials from National Logistics Cell (NLC) and Frontier Works Organisation (FWO) be summoned to the next meeting for a detailed briefing.
Raising further concerns, Senator Bilal Mandokhail questioned why advance payments had not been recovered from contractors operating toll plazas, despite contractual provisions allowing such recoveries.
He noted advance recovery mechanisms were in place, yet outstanding amounts continued to increase.
Officials informed committee approximately Rs10 billion was recoverable from FWO alone.
Reacting strongly, Senator Mandokhail questioned why recoveries were not enforced despite available mechanisms.
The committee directed recoveries from private contractors be completed within 60 days, while outstanding dues from government entities must be cleared by June.
