Greedy officials raise and charge illegal road tolls

Seasonal spikes in vegetable prices are attributed, in large part, to expensive transport.

Aside from fuel, the extensive network of toll roads in China adds greatly to logistics costs.

Steep road tolls have long been a source of complaint, not just from delivery truck drivers, but average motorists as well.

Despite the national transport authorities' pledge that toll-free roads will make up 96 percent of the entire mileage of the nation's highways, they didn't set a timetable.

Jiangxi Province recently lifted road tolls in its jurisdiction in defiance of the pledge. The move targeted certain heavy trucks, compelling drivers to pay four times as many tolls as they did.

Local authorities said the price hike was motivated by higher tolls in neighboring provinces. No public hearings, normally a mandatory procedure, were held to approve the increase.

In contrast with past situations, officials didn't bother concocting a good rationale for the higher tolls this time. If anything, their half-baked excuse only revealed avarice.

A great number of expressways, whose debts have already been financed by tolls, still retain barricades and booths to collect fees. They should have been made toll-free long ago but local officials refuse to give away this cash cow.

It is observed that the inter-province logistics costs in China could eclipse the shipping costs of its exports.

In coal-rich Shanxi Province, notorious for its numerous tolls, wise drivers delivering coal would avoid the main roads and take little-trodden country roads, well aware they would otherwise be fleeced all the way through the province.

Two years ago, the annual earnings reports of 19 listed companies managing national highways showed that their gross profits averaged 55.44 percent.

And mind you, toll roads also are a hotbed for corruption.

It's high time transport officials delivered on their promise of scrapping tolls and returning roads to the people.

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