UBER, Ola default on entry tax

Ramkrishan Upadhyay 

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Tribune News Service 

Chandigarh, December 25 

The State Transport Authority (STA) has served notices to the web-based taxi aggregators, UBER and Ola, asking them to deposit the entry tax for their taxis registered in the other states but operating in the city. 

As per the policy of the administration, all commercial vehicles registered in the other states will have to pay the fixed entry tax of Rs 1,000 per vehicle quarterly to the STA while entering the city. 

Rajiv Tiwari, Additional Secretary of the STA, said during checking, it was found that the taxi aggregators, UBER and Ola, had not paid the amount for the past three months. He said no vehicles of the aggregators would be allowed to operate in the city without depositing the entry tax. He said the STA had issued challans to more than 100 taxis of both aggregators running without depositing the amount in the past one week. 

The STA imposed the entry tax on commercial vehicles last year. 

Meanwhile, the drive to challan taxis has left the drivers in a fix. One of the drivers said it was not their fault if companies failed to deposit the entry tax. He said the drive had affected their business as they had been paying the amount from their pocket. He said they raised the issue with the authorities. 

Sources said around 3,000 taxis of the aggregators, which were registered in the other states, were operating in the city. Their entry tax arrears may run into lakhs.