How the Paliyekkara toll collection firm scammed KSRTC with fake bills

Thiruvananthapuram: The company entrusted by the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) for user fee collection at Paliyekkara toll plaza has allegedly committed fraud amounting to crores of rupees by issuing fake bills in the name of “fictitious” vehicles.

The Transport Department withheld a sum of Rs 102 crore, charging the firm with issuing fake bills against “non-existing” KSRTC buses. It has asked the Home department to initiate a Crime Branch probe into the matter and approached the NHAI authorities, requesting to blacklist the company. Besides, it has demanded measures to reclaim Rs 3.06 crore already handed over to the firm.

KSRTC’ defence

The Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) said it could provide the bills with respect to its buses passing through the toll gate from December 2011 to November 20, 2021. A case in this regard is there in the court. The KSRTC officials accused the company of not providing detailed bills despite requesting many times.

A high-level meet attended by the Chief Secretaries, Public Works Department officials, and Transport Secretaries was held on July 16 to discuss the matter. The KSRTC stated it could only pay a maximum of Rs 33 crore against the Rs 102 crore bill as it doubted the veracity of the user-fee amount charged by the company. However, the toll-collection firm then handed over the bills for ten years and demanded settlement of the dues.

The Chief Secretary allotted two weeks to KSRTC to examine these bills.

The fake bills were detected while going through the ones issued by the company from June 2014 to June 2022, following which the payment of Rs 102 crore was entirely withheld. An expert team found that fake bills were issued with regard to 6,908 bus trips.

Though the Super Deluxe class buses used to pass through the toll gate only twice daily, the company issued bills showing the vehicles passed six times. Similarly, user fee receipts were issued claiming the KSRTC buses with five-digit number plates like KL-15 10837 passed through the toll gate 70 times. But five-digit registration numbers were not given anywhere in the country itself.

Scrapped buses too billed

The Transport Department demanded a probe charging that all these were fake bills issued against non-existing vehicles. It was also found that bills were dolled out against buses already scrapped before 2005, showing that the vehicles passed through the toll plaza in 2020.

The examination revealed fraud to the tune of Rs 1.55 lakh in the case of the scrapped buses alone. Yet another fake bill was issued against the registration number KL-15 A 7821, originally that of a KSRTC SWIFT bus registered this year, claiming that the vehicle passed through the toll gate two years back!

The KSRTC also detected that while the rule provided a 50 per cent discount in user fees for buses belonging to its depots within a 10 km radius of the toll plaza, the company, in reality, charged double the toll charges.