RTO Charges Have gone which were nominal amount earlier. Bigger cities already had higher charges, they will now go up significantly.
New car buyers will have to shell out RS. 5000 instead of Rs. 600 (current charge) for registering their vehicle while renewing of 15 year old vehicle will cost Rs. 10,000. Two-wheeler buyers who have been paying Rs. 50 so far for registration will now pay RS. 1000 for new motorcycles and Rs 2000 for renewing the registration of their old two-wheelers after 15 years. Fleet operators too will shell out Rs. 10,000 for new vehicles and Rs. 20,000 for renewing the registration of old vehicles after 15 years.
Earlier, commercial vehicle registration charges were Rs. 1000. Imported cars has gone up to Rs. 20,000 from Rs. 2500. Government has also proposed twice a year fitness test for petrol and diesel vehicles which are over 15 years old. Renewing their registration will only be allowed after they comply with the fitness norms.
Car owners who give away their old vehicles at scrappage centres will be issued a benefit certificate which will exempt them from paying the registration charge for a new car purchase. However, this will all depend on how the scrappage policy pays the car owner.
While a smaller raise would have been alright, this has been done to discourage sales of new cars where an industry is already losing sales by lakhs of units, 10 lakh jobs are on edge of termination and financial system of lending going out for a toss. Fleet owners already own going through tough times are going face even more burden.
While there is good news that GST on electric vehicles has come down to 5% and charging equipment is also priced at 5% GST it isn’t enough because maintaining a vehicle and spare parts of electric vehicles and IC engines are still priced at a whopping 18%. Government clearly doesn’t want lose a inch of revenue from these simultaneous actions, hoping we get good roads and infrastructure from the higher taxes that we pay.