The road and infrastructure cess levied on petrol and fuel will be the key source to fund the construction of national highways and setting up of piped water connections to the rural areas, reports Economic Times.

Around 75 per cent of the budget allocated for highway development is estimated to come from this cess in FY23, according to the ET report.

According to the Budget documents, the Central Road and Infrastructure Fund (CRIF) will be contributing nearly Rs 1.48 lakh crore for highway construction.

The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) will be given Rs 1.34 lakh crore out of the total Rs 1.89 lakh crore that is allocated to the Union Road Transport and Highways Ministry in the budget.

Further, the Centre has proposed to provide Rs 1.01 lakh crore to NHAI from the CRIF for 2022-23, which is 254 per cent more than what the highway authority got from this fund in the revised estimate of the current financial year.

“We have also provisioned for raising another Rs 25,000 crore through innovative financing such as InvITs and securitisation of the future toll as it has been done for Delhi-Mumbai expressway project,” an official was quoted in the ET report as saying.

Additionally, the fuel cess will be entirely funding the Jal Jeevan Mission along with the rural component of the Swachh Bharat Mission as well.