Telangana: 'IN' series vehicle registration to ease inter-State transfers

Hyderabad: In a move which could benefit the Defence personnel, Central government staff and other services who frequently transferred to different States, the Centre proposes to provide the facility of re-registration of their vehicle with IN series. The Central government proposes to take road tax for two years for the vehicle with IN series on a pilot basis.

According to the draft notification, the new rule would make it easier for the transfer and re-registration of these vehicles and make it completely hassle-free. People in Defence and other government offices get transferred a lot of times and their vehicles need to be taken to different States. They can go for IN series and have to pay road tax for two years, which can be done easily through online mode.

Right now, the vehicle owners are made to pay Rs 15 years road tax. If they transfer the vehicle from one State to another and apply for re-registration, road tax for the remaining years has to be paid, which is a cumbersome process and may not pursue to get back the amount. The Centre proposes to have road tax of 8 per cent for vehicles costing Rs 10 lakh and 12 per cent for vehicles costing over Rs 20 lakh.

In Telangana, not even a single vehicle owner had applied for claiming the road tax after shifting. A senior official told The Hans India that hardly anyone applies for claiming the road tax. "They take NOC and leave and do not apply for claiming road tax money. During the last one year not even a single vehicle owner applied for this," said a senior official.

Col Rajesh said that whatever rule the Centre brings it should be simple and the system should be uniform. Let there be a single tax system for the entire country. If road tax is paid in one state it should be valid in all the states. "We get transferred once in two years. The facility should be one time so that the vehicle owners do not need to re-register every time when they are transferred," said Col Rajesh.

However, experts in the transport sector say that the proposed move of the Centre may not fetch any result as the States would not want to leave the revenue. Former transport additional commissioner CLN Gandhi said that taxation is a state subject. "MV Act rules are different and taxation rules are state subject. Nobody will encroach on each other's subjects. Some of them like High Court Judges, Defence employees who are higher ranks are exempted by the state government from this," said Gandhi.

C Joshi, who works in a reputed bank, welcomed the proposal. "Generally, the police personnel in southern states question the registration when we move to other cities. The Centre's move will benefit the employees," said Joshi.