Maharashtra caps road tax payable to INR 20 lakhs – Super expensive cars get cheaper by crores

Road Tax, the one-time payment, that was mandatory for purchasing a new car, has been increased in the state of Maharashtra by 2%. This increase is applicable to both petrol and diesel vehicles. Petrol vehicles which originally attracted a 9-11% road tax on the value of the car has been increased to 11-13% while on diesel variants, the tax was originally 11-13% which is now at 13-15%.

However on the bright side (only for those buying super expensive cars), road tax caps the maximum amount at INR 20 lakhs which will result in a substantial price cut for both performance and luxury vehicles. Buyers of these vehicle had to earlier shell out 20% of the ex-showroom price of the car as road tax while payment of octroi entailed another 4.5%.

Lamborghini Huracan Avio in India

To put this price reduction on performance and luxury cars into perspective we take an example of the Lamborghini Aventador. This luxury vehicle carries a price tag of INR 5.0 crores. With the road tax cap, price will go upto INR 5.21 crores as against an earlier INR 6.23 crores. The Lamborghini Huracan which had an earlier price tag of INR 2.99 crores will now be on offer at INR 3.19 crores as against an earlier INR 3.72 crores before insurance.

Other performance and luxury vehicles in this category will also receive a lower price tag thus making them more attractive to buyers. For example, the one-off Rolls Royce Sweptail, which costs about INR 85 crore, excluding taxes. If someone buys this car in Maharashtra, including import duty, the price of the car could go to about INR 150+ crore.

RR Sweptail

Now, if we consider the price of this car as INR 150 crore, as per the old tax structure, this would entail a road tax of INR 15+ crore and a octroi of about INR 7 crore. But under the new road tax policy, the buyer of such a car will not have to shell out INR 22 crore, but only INR 20 lakhs.

This will promote the sales of expensive cars in Maharashtra. Sadly, for most of the car buyers in the state, this new road tax policy will result in paying higher road tax as compared to before.