Maharashtra’s Amnesty on Traffic Fines Rewards the Wrong People

Maharashtra is offering a 20 per cent discount if you pay outstanding traffic fines. It is being called a Traffic Challan Amnesty Scheme, but essentially it is a festival sale. Media reports say there is about Rs 5724 crore outstanding, and that is from a total imposed of Rs 8678 crore of which Rs 2953 crore has been collected. Whatever is gathered will be of use to a state whose budget has been stretched. Those who pay can lead stress-free lives on the roads. Win-win, you would think. But maybe not.

Remember the Rs 2953 crore already collected. That was paid by honest citizens who did their duty. The message they get is if you have respect for rules, you will lose out. The reverse is also true. The person who did not pay realises there is a reward that comes with it. The next time he gets a fine he will just wait because he thinks a similar incentive will eventually be offered.

Among the reasons you can think of why a government would introduce a scheme like this are convenience and the need to hide incompetence. Convenience because it does not have to figure out how to collect the outstanding amount. Some challans eligible for the amnesty go all the way back to 2019. The more this huge number stays on the balance sheet as something owed but never collected, the worse it reflects on the government as an enforcer of rules.

The scheme ignores why traffic fines exist in the first place--to make traffic smoother and roads safer to travel on, for both drivers and non-drivers. Giving an amnesty, even a 20 per cent one, is diluting that objective. The scheme talks of licence suspension and impounding of vehicles for those who continue to offend after the amnesty, but why wait for an amnesty? Bad behaviour must come with risks. But then any increase in punishment in India only serves to increase the bribes that the traffic department will take. In an amnesty scheme for traffic fines, you can read the story of why Indian roads are the way they are.