[ringoism]

This would seem a very encouraging advancement / simplification, added to a growing list of procedures which are becoming much easier than earlier.

Apart from easing job transfers:

From the government's side there may be a recognition that the more they streamline such processes, the more likely there is to be voluntary conformance to the law, also the easier it becomes to enforce the law.

There are so many people out there driving vehicles registered in the name of some previous owner of ten years ago in another state, on account of the hassles involved in transferring ownership (even within a given state) / paying additional taxes.

The NOC system also needs to be completely revamped or (preferably) permanently done away with in this "information age" where pertinent details could so easily be kept at the fingertips of any registering authority.

As it is/has long been, identifying and tracking down the actual owner/driver of any vehicle identified in a violation/crime must be so time-consuming and unreliable as to be ineffective in many cases; while honest persons who would desire to conform to the law have been forced to jump through multiple flaming hoops to get it done. Which is to say that the well-intentioned suffer, and violators are "safe". "The driver [God only knows who he may have been] is absconding" we have too often heard/read.

Before long, I'd expect police officers / vehicles to be carrying laptops/tablets with direct access to hotlists of stolen vehicles, nationwide offenders with upaid fines, etc, etc.

I regularly see wholly unempowered traffic police being (predictably) ignored / disrespected by out-of-state offenders up here in H.P.

Hopefully those days will soon be far behind us.

-Eric

[King_pin09]

The hard work of several people groups have reached a stage from where fruitful results appear nearby. The considerations made in the proposal are really thoughtful and would provide great relief to people moving across states.
Today cars from another state are flagged down vehemently at various places and owners are harassed unnecessarily by cops in the name of road tax, et-al, even if the vehicle has arrived for a very short duration, say for a day or so. There are instances where cops have refused to even abide by the very Acts, Circulars or even Court Orders that permit outstate vehicles for 12 months; instead they demand huge money or threaten levying heavy fines unanimously. Introducing such one stop tax system would curb all this menace for once and for all.

[udainxs]

Great job on this initiative, Waseem and team!

I moved from Chandigarh to Bangalore and had to pay 8x the road tax I had paid on my new Zen, 12 years later

However, what concerns me is that this move is aimed at increasing tax revenue for states which could mean an increase in road tax for a lot of states across the country.

Already there are rumors from Chandigarh that they will charge a whopping 50% on second cars. Telangana also penalizes you on a second vehicle through road tax.

Lets hope they dont bucket road tax under 28%

[Vishnuk]

Originally Posted by SILVERWOOD

With small winter session and budget session likely to have other important bills, I don't for see it coming up before Monsoon session. Having said that, Mr. Gadkari is confident of getting this passed in the winter session itself.

Thanks to Waseem and team for their efforts in taking it to this level.

Hopefully the legislation is passed soon & there is not a huge increase in the road tax. If they do make a uniform road tax across the country, I am assuming people in Bangalore stand to gain as they pay one of the highest road tax & the uniform road tax may not be as high as what it is now. My assumption is coming from the fact, that the road tax in UT's like Pondicherry are very low & they will not accept a huge increase in it.

[cp171185]

I feel the concept of toll tax, road tax concept should be removed. In general we are paying 40-60% of our income as tax to government to get infrastructure etc. facility (20-30% Income tax & Avg 18-28% GST). After paying the that hefty amount, if one needs to pay further amount to authority to get good facility (be whatever name called) then what was the purpose for collecting Income tax & GST at all? Aren't those supposed to take care of everything? Even one dont get good food, health & education unless the person spend hefty amount to the best hospitals, schools etc (Still not guaranteed though).

Govt. is doing every possible thing for the accountability of our income, which is good; but where's yours? I remember on one hand fiscal deficit of our 2015-16 union budget was around 5 L crores, and on the other hand if we sum up the amount involved in just 3 scams (2G+Coal+CWG) the figures are nearly same, forget about the scams not coming in media. Not pointing any political party, but there shall be a similar effort for the accountability of Govt's income as well just like they are trying to make it for our's.

Sorry for being off topic a little bit.

Cheers!

[sparky@home]

This is very good news indeed, I only hope that it’s passed and implemented at the earliest. Once its law, I really hope quite a few offenders are caught and made to pay, especially over speeding, reckless driving, drunken driving to name a few. Sometimes things don’t work out as wanted, I hope it’s not the case with this law.

[catchjyoti]

I hail this news. And I say about time. I bought my car in AP, paid life-time road tax there. Then got transferred to MH and had to pay life-time road tax here too.

This was in stark contrast to how it was done in USA when I moved from TX to CA and then onto OH.

[maddy42]

Waseem - Thank you from everyone out here and the country. The RTO and Cops have misused this flaw for personal gains. This atleast will now stop cops from stopping vehicles in the name of checking documents for out of state tourists.

Catchjyoti - The US does not have life time taxes, so even moving states and paying taxes is fine. Life time road tax is a different story in india, when you move states.

Maddy

[zulfi hansi]

IMHO the concept of lifetime road tax is rubbish. Unfortunately none of the governments will ever consider this. The very reason why LTT came into existence was because the state governments became greedy and started seeing easy money, but eventually they end up losing a lot of revenue as compared to the older yearly tax system. In today's times, yearly tax collection and monitoring can be done online. Even today a central government employee is exempted from paying LTT, they all pay yearly tax, for a simple reason that their jobs are transferable to other states all over the country. Now if you look at the private sector today, people shifting interstate, it is the same story, but it was not so when this law was made. So if the same law needs to be applied for all, the yearly tax makes sense, LTT is nonsense.

Waseem, great job. Let us know if something can be done to bring back the yearly tax system.

[Sahil]

Waseem - Any progress/update on this?

Since the winter session is over, when will this be likely to move ahead ?

[Max63]

There is a movement going on for the demand of "One Nation - One Road Tax" as we all are facing the problem of getting squeezed by the Police and even the RTO officials if we are outside of our own state. This I have faced when I was visiting Kolkata in my car and stopped by the police and asking un usual questions whether I am staying in Kolkata or do i have the authorisation to drive in West Bengal with a MH number plate. They were harassing the outsiders to mint money. So I thought that this is the high time that we should raise this demand and send a petition to our Transport Minister to abolish the old law and bring in a new law permitting all Indians to travel free in which ever state they travel to irrespective of their state registration.

I am posting a link in this connection. Here it is. This initative has been taken by Change.org and I think we should support the movement so that the law become a reality. Already more than a Lac has signed the petition in Face book.

The link

[ringoism]

Originally Posted by zulfi hansi

LTT is nonsense.

Annual renewals have never been any kind of hassle in my homeland; even before we could do it online, it came via mail with a payment voucher. These days super quick/simple.

Could be greed or something else. To get ALL our money right from the start seems to make it available for all sorts of state purposes right away, instead of having to wait for it. That's one way to look at it, but another way is that in a given year, only taxes from new vehicles are being processed, no revenue is coming in from older vehicles. I suppose enforcement could be an issue. Some would take their chances not renewing vs. the costs of putting out every year.

Things would've been easier for the NGT in Delhi, I suppose, on a yearly system; a lot of the outcry from the populace was "You cannot ban our cars, we've already paid for 15 years of road tax!". They potentially could also increase yearly taxes on diesels, pre-BSIV cars/trucks, etc, etc, to encourage their earlier retirement (though that tends to penalize the poor more than the rich - maybe that's the thinking - the "rich" buy the new cars and pay 15-years tax, while those on lesser scale having to buy second-hand don't get hit with it). Anyway, it would seem to give the gov't and NGT more flexibility, if they're not going in for it there must be some rationale.

-Eric

[zulfi hansi]

That is good, yes it can be simplified like online payment etc.
To counter that, there should be a system where a annual tax to be collected until 15 years and later one single payment, that will encourage people to either scrap the car of pay big tax, making it unviable to keep the car running.

There was a system in WB, I remember a dealer from Kolkatta told me that there is a 5 year tax period for the new cars and later renewals for LTT, something like that.

[itwasntme]

Originally Posted by ringoism

Annual renewals have never been any kind of hassle in my homeland; even before we could do it online, it came via mail with a payment voucher. These days super quick/simple.

Unfortunately, Indians are prepared to game the system and it's common knowledge that a vast proportion of rural vehicles and 2 wheelers blatantly run without road tax and insurance.

At least with a LTT, some tax gets collected at one go. Needless to say, it's the law-abiding folk who are gamed.

[lazy]

Originally Posted by SILVERWOOD

Times now.


https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/...w/62212599.cms

Hi Waseem

Can you share what is happening with this proposed Bill. I don't think this Bill was tabled in Rajya Sabha during the last winter session.

Hypothetically, if Rajya Sabha also passes this Bill, how long would it be before all states implement a common tax rate ?

cheers
lazy