December 20, 2002	Friday	Shawwal 15, 1423

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ISLAMABAD, Dec 19: The government has withdrawn all the exemptions on toll tax, said Federal Communications Secretary Iftikhar Rashid on Thursday.

He stated this during a presentation about National Highway Improvement Programme by Raja Nowsherwan Member (Planning) of the National Highway Authority.

The secretary said that the government was keen to develop the highways infrastructure and the vehicles carrying more than the specified load would be checked and stopped from plying the roads. Mr Rashid said that the NHA was moving forward by upgrading the roads and busy in their maintenance.

The federal secretary emphasized the need to professionally analyze the projects keeping all the aspects in view to facilitate the public.

The present government, he said, was committed to the development of the communications sector specially the roads and highways network.

Earlier, Mr Nowsherwan said that an Economic Evaluation Study for National Highway Network was conducted jointly by the NHA and the World Bank in 1998, using the Highway Development and Management (HDM) tool and a new study, in the year 2000 was conducted, based on updated road network data collected by M/s Finnroad & Finnra.

He said that the analysis was done using the Highway Development and Management (HDM-Iv) tool and was aimed at future funding needs.