THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: If the state’s infra-booster Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board has to stay solvent, the state’s motor vehicle taxes will have to grow at a healthy 15 per cent each year. A share of the motor vehicles tax is the nectar the state holds to tantalise investors. Reason enough for the state government to direct transport commissioners to tighten their grip on revenue mobilisation, to scrape out as much revenue as possible. Last fiscal did give the government a jolt. Though finance minister Dr T. M. Thomas Isaac had estimated the motor vehicle tax to increase by 21 percent during 2016-17, the revised estimate showed that the increase was only 15 per cent. When the actual accounts come out, sources said the increase would be even lesser. What’s more, an internal check has found that slipshod administrative supervision is causing serious shortfall in the collection of the tax, especially when it comes to the levy of the ‘onetime’ tax imposed on vehicles.
Kerala Motor Vehicle Tax Act, 1976, stipulates that new motor vehicles should pay a ‘onetime’ tax at the time of the first registration of the vehicle. The rates are six per cent, eight per cent, 10 per cent, 15 per cent and 20 per cent of the value of vehicles having purchase value up to Rs 5 lakh, betweenRs 5 lakh and Rs 10 lakh, between Rs 10 lakh and Rs 15 lakh, between Rs 15 lakh and Rs 20 lakh, and more than Rs 20 lakh respectively. The purchase value includes the GST, cess and customs/excise duty.
The internal check found that there was a short levy of onetime tax in the case of 4,724 vehicles. In most of these cases, the ex-showroom price was considered as the purchase value to collect the onetime tax. “Directions have been issued to use the ‘on the road’ price as the purchase value,” a top Finance Department official said. Directions have also been issued to impose fines on overloaded vehicles. The Motor Vehicles Act specifies that a motor vehicle should not carry a weight that exceeds the gross vehicle weight specified in the certificate of registration. Check reports in regional transport offices show that innumerable vehicles carry excess weight and most were let off without the penalty.
