The News Minute | March 16, 2015 | 07:54 pm IST
If you use a vehicle registered outside Kerala in the state, you may have to shell out a tax, according to a recent proposal made by the Oommen Chandy government.
Though the Kerala tax is unlike the one in Karnataka, which mandates non-Karnataka registered vehicles in the state for more than 30 days to pay a hefty lifetime tax, it is likely to impact motorists from across the country who frequently visit the two states.
Now an online petition, titled “Drive Without Borders: One nation-One Road Tax”, is protesting against the “atrocities meted out by Karnatata Road Transport officials while checking Non-Karnataka Vehicles in Bangalore.”
“It is surprising Kerala made such a proposal considering it is a popular tourist destination. Though the amount mentioned in the proposal by Kerala is small as compared to that of Karnataka, they are setting a precedent, says Waseem Memon, who began the petition on change.org.
The petition reads, “The crackdown started by Karnataka officials while checking Non-Karnataka cars has created a wave of terror amongst people residing in neighboring states. These officials treat each and every car plying in Bangalore with suspicion and have started to impound documents pertaining to the vehicle and personal documents like Company Access Cards/Pan Cards/Aadhar Cards etc.The vehciles owners are threatened that if they do not sign the challan, their vehicles will be seized and will be towed to the nearest BMTC depots.”
“I moved from another city to Bengaluru. I took a house on rent and made several other expenses to settle down here. The life time tax for my vehicle is too high to pay. Besides the value of a vehicle decreases with time. But the taxes remain constant”, Memon says.
Stating similar amendments made by the Haryana and Kerala government, the petition adds, “These state amendments are against the freedom of movement which our constitution guarantees and are also against the spirit of the constitution's provisions and federal principles.”
The petition has gathered over 1,000 signatures within two hours of launch and it urges the government to implement a “One Nation-One Road Tax policy.”
Memon hopes to gather at least one lakh signatures, and once he reaches his goal, he plans to send a copy of the petition to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Transport minister Nitin Gadkari and one to President Pranab Mukherjee.
“I m suffering ......n its ridiculous to pay taxes again and again in the same country as you move”, wrote one person on the page of the petition, whereas another wrote “I support unified taxation all over india.(sic)”
In a move that seems to echo the sentiment of the people supporting the protest, the Karnataka High Court on Friday slammed the state government for collecting tax but not providing proper roads to motorists.
"When there are hardly good roads, why are you levying a road tax," Justice Huluvadi G Ramesh asked the government while hearing a writ petition that challenged the lifetime road tax imposed in the state, states a report by The Economic Times.
The judge also asked the government to explain the legal validity of the amendment. The report states that the judge asked "how the government could levy taxes under the Motor Vehicles Act as the subject of motor vehicles came under the Concurrent List of the Constitution, and any amendments under the subject called for the Presidential assent, and the government could not have enforced the amendment with the Governor's assent."