Transporters resent special road tax hike

Ambika Sharma

Tribune News Service

Solan, January 9

The All-Himachal Truck Operators Federation has opposed a steep hike of 50 per cent to 66.66 per cent in the tax structure of goods carriers.

Federation president Naresh Gupta said, “As against the special road tax (SRT) of Rs 10,000 and Rs 6,000 for vehicles carrying above 120 quintals of weight and those carrying between 30 and 120 quintals, there has been a hike of Rs 5,000 to Rs 4,000”.

Over 50% increase

As against the special road tax of Rs10,000 and Rs6,000 for vehicles carrying above 120 quintals weight and those carrying between 30 and 120 quintals, there has been a hike of Rs5,000 to Rs4,000. — Naresh Gupta, president, all-himachal truck operators federation

About 50,000 goods vehicles would be affected by the decision. As a large number of goods carriers have to repay bank loans, the decision would hit their revenue, said federation leaders.

The vehicles operate in the industrial clusters of Baddi-Barotiwala-Nalagarh, Parwanoo, Darlaghat, Kala Amb, Paonta Sahib, Mehatpur, Sansarpur Terrace, etc.

The Union Ministry of Road and Surface Transport has increased gross vehicle weight, including the weight of the vehicles plus its loading capacity by 20 per cent. This includes an increase in the loading capacity to 14.19 per cent and has led to a hike in the SRT.

Naresh Gupta, however, said the increase in the SRT should be in sync with the increase in the loading capacity for various vehicles. It should be from 15 to 20 per cent.

The state government has also merged the goods tax and token tax and brought it under the ambit of the Transport Department.

Earlier, goods tax was charged by the State Taxes and Excise Department (STED). Transporters welcomed the move but they demanded that its implementation should be from April 1 as advance tax had been deposited by some transporters until March 31.

They also rued that the process to seek a no-objection certificate from the STED for passing the vehicles for securing fitness certificate was causing hardships. All vehicles had queued up for days before the STED officials and this was incurring monetary losses. The federation has sought relaxation in the NOC up to March 31 for smooth switchover to the new system.

They also resented the annual deposition of taxes and vouched for quarterly system prevailing earlier and rebate on depositing taxes in one go for a year.

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