Visitors face problems as road tax refund gets delayed
Bangalore, 23rd January 2018: More than 5000 out-of-state registered vehicles are yet to receive their road tax refund following Supreme Court’s order that was passed on March 10, 2016.
The Central Motor Vehicles Act states that when a vehicle which is registered in one state and moves to another state, they have to pay a lifetime tax. However, if they stay for one year, they can do without paying the lifetime tax but they have to change to Karnataka’s registration number.
But the new law states that non-Karnataka vehicles do not need to change their registration number. But within one year they have to pay lifetime tax. Failing to do this, will attract a fine.
On the other hand, the apex court said if the order goes in the favor of Karnataka government then those who received the tax refund will have to return it to the government.
There were 190 applicants but the number has now increased to 357 applicants. Among these 357 applicants, there are people who have stayed on for more than a year and they did not pay any road taxes. These people will be imposed with a fine.
A total of Rs. 40 crores has been collected in taxes from the out-of-state vehicles which have been in Karnataka for the last10 years.
Karnataka charges more road tax as compared to any other state in India.
Raju Reddy, who is a car owner from Delhi said, “We are being harassed when we bring our vehicles to Karnataka. We have to pay extra road tax. The government should impose equal road taxation in all the states.”
The Public Relation Officer of the Transport Department said, “We are trying to keep a track the out-of-state vehicles which have entered the state in the last 30 days. This will help us to know the number of vehicles which are not paying tax. In the past three months, we found that 239 vehicles evaded the road tax and were fined with minimum of Rs. 1000.”
An officer of the Regional Transport Office of Electronic City said that around 500 cases are pending where people have not got their road tax refund. They have to first prove that they had stayed in the city for not more one year and only then the process of the tax refund can be initiated.
“I have given my receipt to the RTO officer of Rajajinagar two years back. But still, I did not get my money back. I don’t know when I will get my money back.” said Avirup Sen, who is a car owner from West Bengal.
Prayag Roy Chowdhury, another car owner from West Bengal said, “I had to pay Rs. 50,000 for the road tax. This caused immense problem for me.”
