Joshi asks state govts to rationalise Motor Vehicle Taxes
India Blooms News Service
New Delhi, Feb 13 (IBNS) Union Minister for Road Transport & Highways C.P.Joshi on Monday urged all the state governments to arrive at a consensus to rationalise Motor Vehicle Taxes and harmonise the rates to facilitate easy movement of vehicles across the country.
Presiding over the “34th Meeting of Transport Development Council” organised by the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways, here on Monday, he said that there is an urgent need to rationalise the Motor Vehicle Taxes in order to make the road transport system in the country hassel free and for seamless movement of goods and tourists vehicles.
"At present, there are significant variations across the States in respect of rate, base and methodology of collection of tax. With the advancement of information technology, it has now become imperative that seemless movement of vehicles across the States which facilitated so that the transaction costs that are involved in movement of goods nationally gets reduced and this benefit is passed on to the citizens," said Joshi.
"With this objective in mind, there is a need to rationalise the existing motor vehicle taxation system in order to reap benefits of technology."
He informed the participants that a very important decision for introduction of a New National Permit scheme was approved in the 33rd meeting of Transport Development Council.
The new National Permit scheme has facilitated the transporters to move goods vehicles across the country and the system is running very efficiently with the help of NIC, State Bank of India and Principal Accounts Office of this Ministry, he said. The transporters’ community is also largely satisfied after the introduction of this scheme.
Joshi emphasised on the need to be given greater attention relates to road safety.
"With massive investment in roads and the exponential growth in the number of vehicles, it has become necessary to have a system which integrates all disciplines that influence road safety. There is an urgent need to recognise the worsening road safety situation that has resulted in rising road fatalities," he said.
"Taking into consideration that India has one of the highest road accidents in the world, it is high time that road safety measures get due priority by the State Governments in their future plans.
"Very soon, a meeting of National Road Safety Council will be convened and the State Governments are requested to come up with concrete Action Plans in mitigating the road accidents in the country including identification of accident prone spots and identification of reasons for accidents at those spots and taking up measures to mitigate factors at these spots," said Joshi.
Referring to various technological advancements in the road sector recently, the Minister said that the National Register and National Transport Portal were launched in July, 2011.
The objective of 100% connectivity and computerisation of data base of all RTOs in all States / Union Territories has been achieved. Inter-state check posts in the country during the XII Five Year Plan to move towards border-less and paper-less movement of goods across State borders reducing transaction costs and logistic costs to the economy has also been planned to set up.
The Ministry will continue its efforts in making the best use of available modern technology for the facilitation of general public, transporters and the Transport Departments, said Joshi.
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