Chandigarh, November 22
Whereas the Badal government today lowered tax on air-conditioned and ordinary buses, it has come out with new tax proposals for temporarily registered vehicles and chassis passing through Punjab. It has also imposed tax on vehicles in the possession of manufacturers and dealers.
The state government today issued a notification announcing new tax regime for motor vehicles . Earlier, there were two categories of taxes-motor vehicle tax and road tax. Now there will be only one category-motor vehicles tax-in which road tax category has been merged. It has been perhaps done away in view of the possible legal hassles. Legal experts had been saying that road tax could not be charged once the government had levied toll tax that was charged to recover construction cost by private investors.
Tax on stage carriage ordinary buses registered in Punjab will now be Rs 2.25 per km per vehicle per day whereas earlier it was Rs 2.60. On AC buses it has been brought down from Rs 7.5 per km per day per vehicle to just Re 1. As it is an aim of the Badal government to provide AC buses as public transport, the heavy slash in case of AC buses has been made to make its operational viability. The state will, however, suffer a big loss in this regard.
New tax rates have been announced for vehicles used for trade and business, by schools and colleges etc. For those buses running up to 50 km and used for trade and business purposes, the rate of tax will be Rs 45,000 per annum and for college and other
educational and institutional vehicles it will be Rs 35,000 per annum. For schools, it will be Rs 20,000 per annum whereas earlier for all these categories the tax rate was Rs 22,000 per annum.
Any temporarily registered vehicle and chassis passing through Punjab will have to pay now Rs 200 if it is covered under a motor car, tractor and Omni bus category. For other vehicles, it will be Rs 1500 per vehicle and for chassis of motor vehicles it will be Rs 1,000.
Manufacturers and dealers possessing two wheelers will have to pay Rs 2,000 per annum for every 100 vehicles parked in their yards and Rs 4,000 for every 50 three and four-wheeled vehicles parked in their sale or stock yards.
For goods vehicles, new tax will be Rs 3,000 per vehicle per annum for not exceeding weight 1.2 tonne and Rs 4,000 for exceeding 1.2 tonne but not 6 tonnes. For vehicles falling in 6 to 16.2 tonnes category, the per annum tax will be Rs 5,000 and exceeding 16.2 tonnes, it will be Rs 8,000. Vehicles exceeding 25 tonnes will have to pay Rs 15,000. Permit holders will have to pay Rs 2,000 per annum.
For motor and maxi cabs registered in other states and plying on contract carriage permit, or all-India tourist permit or any other similar permit, they will be charged Rs 300 and Rs 600 per day, respectively, on entering Punjab. For ordinary buses, deluxe buses and AC buses, operators will have to pay Rs 2,000, Rs 3000 and Rs 4000 per day, respectively, on entering Punjab. Ordinary and deluxe tourist buses registered in Punjab will have to pay Rs 6,000 per seat per annum, AC buses Rs 5,000 per seat and integral coaches Rs 4,000 per seat per annum.
Buses operating in cities(within municipal limits) will have to pay Rs 60 per seat per quarter and outside the municipal limit Rs 4.5 per km per bus per day.
On personal vehicles lump sum tax will be charged on their value. For motor cycles not exceeding a value of Rs 15,000, the rate of tax will be 3 per cent and for those exceeding Rs 15,000, the tax rate will be 4 per cent. For four-wheeled personal motor vehicles it will be 2 per cent.
