Lamborghini registered in Indora a surprise

Lalit Mohan

Tribune News Service

Dharamsala, October 8

Lamborghini registered in Indora, Kangra district, along Pathankot district of Punjab, has attracted the attention of the authorities.

Lamborghini is among the costliest cars with its price ranging from Rs 3 crore to Rs 6 crore. It is hard to imagine that anybody from Indora, a backward area, is owning such a costly car.

Lacuna in law

As per the law, anybody, who lives even as a tenant in Himachal, can register his or her vehicle in the state. The owners of the luxury vehicles rope in locals and make a rent deed to get their vehicles registered, saving a heavy tax that they would have paid, if they register the vehicles in their own state.

Besides Lamborghini, some other luxury vehicles registered in Indora include Land Rover Discovery, Range Rovers and Volvo XC 90.

Enquiries made by The Tribune reveal that the low tax on vehicles registration in Himachal attracts the owners of luxury vehicles from other states.

In Himachal, tax on the vehicle registration is as low as 3 per cent, whereas in Punjab, Haryana and Delhi, it is between 6 per cent and 8 per cent. The owners save a few lakhs on the tax.

Sources here said a lacuna in the law was helping them. As per the law, anybody, who lives even as a tenant in Himachal, can register his or her vehicle in the state. The owners of the luxury vehicles rope in locals and make a rent deed to get their vehicles registered, saving a heavy tax that they would have paid, if they register the vehicles in their own state.

Luxury vehicles are being registered in Una, Nurpur and Nalagarh border areas.

Somil Gautam, SDM, Indora, who is also the authority for registering vehicles, said for a tenant, it was legal to register a vehicle in the state. Most of the luxury vehicles were registered in Indora against the rent deeds.

State transport officials said the trend had been continuing since long. Many Army officials got their vehicles registered in the state due to low tax rate here by giving the address of the Army mess.