The cost of registration of new vehicles will go up from October 24, 2016. It will be applicable to both two and four wheelers and also to light and heavy goods vehicles. The new tax will be 2% of one time road tax for two wheelers, cars and SUVs while for light goods vehicles, the cess will be 4%.
For medium and heavy goods vehicles it will either be 2% of one time tax or 10% of annual road tax. Auto rickshaws and taxis will have to shell out cess of 5% of road tax. Through this increased cess, the government is expected to raise INR 150 crores by March 2017.
This new tax collected will go to state government’s ‘Road Safety Fund’. The purpose of collecting added cess in this manner is expected to be directed towards augmenting road safety measures which would go a long way in reducing number of fatalities due to road accidents as has been indicated by Praveen Gedam, State Transport Commissioner.
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Statistics where road accidents are concerned and increaded fatalities over the past five years are astounding. In Maharashtra, a total of 64,000 mishaps occur each year in the past five years in which an average of 13,000 persons have lost their lives while 40,000 have been maimed or disabled.
New CCTV cameras and surveillance systems such as drones will be possible with this amount while other road safety systems such as speed breakers, equipment for traffic enforcement personnel and emergency medical equipment and well equipped ambulances will also be feasible.
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Free medical checkups for drivers of buses and eye check will be conducted regularly while the fund will also be used to conduct road safety awareness camps, augment infrastructure at RTOs and offer counseling to those applying for new vehicle registrations.
