As the Telangana Government started collecting entry tax from vehicles coming from Andhra Pradesh on Wednesday, the State High Court issued an interim order exempting some of the private bus operators from paying the tax till Tuesday. Private Travels Association moved a lunch motion before the High Court challenging Telangana State’s decision to impose motor vehicles entry tax on private buses and trucks on the ground that the unilateral action was causing them a lot of hardship.
Seventy one members of the Association argued that Telangana Government can not imposed entry tax on the vehicles coming from Andhra Pradesh as Hyderabad is the common capital for the next 10 years. They said the imposition of entry tax on Andhra Pradesh vehicles at par with other States is a violation of Andhra Pradesh State Reorganisation Act 2014. The petitioners include Kesineni Travels and Diwakar Travels, both owned by Telugu Desam Party MPs.
The court directed the petitioners to give indemnity bonds at the Telangana border check posts to run their vehicles till Tuesday when the petition will come up for further hearing. At the same time the court asked the other vehicle operators to pay the required entry tax to ply their vehicles while entering Telangana. The court also issued a notice to the Telangana Government to file a counter before Tuesday spelling out its stand on the issue. Telangana Government in its order said as Andhra Pradesh, like any other State, is a separate State, all the vehicles entering Telangana from AP would also have to pay entry tax from April 1.