Northern States meet to discuss road-safety measures

| | Chandigarh
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Northern States meet to discuss road-safety measures

Wednesday, 03 July 2019 | Nishu Mahajan | Chandigarh

Seven northern States, National Capital Territory of Delhi and union territory of Chandigarh on Tuesday decided to push for harmonization of motor vehicle taxes, strengthening of road-safety measures and signing of reciprocal common transport agreements to facilitate the commuters.

They  here to discuss road-safety measures and policy changes for strengthening public transport undertakings in northern part of the country.

Though the State Governments could not reach a consensus over the proposal framed for harmonization of motor vehicle tax, they decided to take the matter in the next meeting to be held in Delhi.

In a previous meeting held in Guwahati last year, the Group of Ministers constituted by the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways had recommended 8 percent tax of vehicles (personal purposes) below Rs 10 lakh, 10 percent for vehicles worth Rs 10-20 lakh, 12 percent for vehicles above Rs 12 lakh besides two percent extra charge for diesel vehicles and two percent less tax for electric vehicles.

The recommendation was deliberated upon in Tuesday’s meeting during which Delhi representatives recommended     seperate slabs for vehicles worth Rs 2-6 lakh with 5 percent tax and 8 percent tax for Rs 6-10  lakh vehicles.

It was recommended that to promote seamless travel of vehicles registered in northern states in each others’ vicinity, the rates of road tax/passenger tax/motor vehicle tax, as the case may be, should be identical.

The issue of making electric vehicles tax-free was also deliberated upon as the same has been done in Chandigarh, which is also the joint capital of Haryana and Punjab.

Haryana Transport Minister, Krishan Lal Panwar, while talking to the mediapersons said that suggestions have been received from fellow ministers during the meeting.

He said that after the implementation of GST regime, we are working to ensure harmonization in motor vehicle act in all northern states.

“Tax related to transport should be similar, because the chances of tax evasion increase when neighbouring states have low tax rates. The road tax is less in neighboring Himachal and people from Haryana get their cars registered there. Such situation is causing loss to the exchequer in many states,” he said 

This issue has been discussed at length with other states and another meeting will soon be held in this regard in Delhi, he added.

Transport Ministers namely Swatantra Dev Singh from Uttar Pradesh, Razia Sultana from Punjab, Govind Singh Thakur from Himachal Pradesh and Kailash Gehlot from Delhi were also present during the press briefing.

Delhi Transport Minister Kailash Gehlot said, “There should be uniformity in the tax. And, we have agreed that the road tax should be identical in the northern states. The recommendations in the meeting will now be discussed with our respective State Governments.”

Panwar said, “We have also decided to promote public transport and reduce the passenger tax in northern states.”

On the issue of road safety, he said the State Government had taken an important initiative under which 50 per cent of the amount of money received from the chalans is being spent on road safety.

“CCTV cameras have been installed at stretch of 30 kms on state highways in the state. NGOs have been included in the road safety campaign. Apart from this, speed governors will be installed in all the buses. Initially, it has been installed at Faridabad, Rewari and Gurugram depots,” he said while raising concern over lakhs of deaths reported across the country on account of road accidents every year. 

Principals of the schools and colleges have been authorized to issue a learning license to the students studying in their schools and colleges,” he added.

Uttar Pradesh Transport Minister Swatantra Dev Singh shared that his government is strictly implementing road safety measures. We have directed all petrol pumps not to sell fuel to those without helmets. We have also announced Rs 1000 reward for those citizens who submit complaint alongwith a picture of bus drivers who talks over phone while driving. Immediate suspension of such drivers is also being ensured by us, he added.

On a question related to reciprocal common transport agreements, Haryana Transport Minister said that an agreement was signed to increase transportation facilities in Uttar Pradesh and Haryana. Under this, Uttar Pradesh buses will ply 50,000 kilometers per day in Haryana and Haryana buses will ply 60,000 kilometers in Uttar Pradesh, he said.

It has been decided that the reciprocal common transport agreements between other northern states will also be signed in view of the increased passenger demands, he added.

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