Unions see red as Maharashtra bends rules to rev up vehicle fees

The amendment will severely affect those running commercial vehicles auto rickshaws black and yellow taxis mobile aggregators Ola Uber and fleet cab operators like Meru and Tab Cabs File PicJust before the Road Safety Week which starts today the government has kicked up a storm by hiking fees for procuring and maintaining a licence by amending the Central Motor Vehicle Rules 1989 The tweaks were made on December 29 but came into effect from January 6 The steep increase mainly targets commercially operating vehicles Procuring a driverrsquos license has also become significantly expensiveSources in the Regional Transport Office RTO said that these commercial vehicles operating as mobile aggregators have to get a lsquoletter of authorityrsquo from the RTO This used to cost them Rs 500 which has now been hiked to Rs 15000 And if the permit holder loses this letter and wants a new one he will have to pay Rs 7500 instead of Rs 500The targetsThe amendment in the Central Motor Vehicle Rules 1989 has targeted several basic sections which has now severely affected those running commercial vehicles mdash auto rickshaws black and yellow taxis mobile aggregators Ola and Uber and fleet cabs operators Meru Easy TabCabs and others For instance ever since the boom in the business of mobile aggregators most of the commercial vehicles with a lsquoTrsquo permit have joined themRegister with RTOApart from this the fee for RTO registrations for private and commercial vehicles has also been hiked Earlier an auto rickshaw would get registered at Rs 200 but it now has to pay Rs 300 light motor vehicles used to pay Rs 300 but will now pay Rs 1000 the fleet and mobile aggregators registering at Rs 400 but shall now pay Rs 1000 Passenger buses will be registered for Rs 1500 instead of Rs 600 Meanwhile the private vehicle owners too will pay Rs 600 instead of Rs 200 Moreover losing the registration certificate RC book would also prove costlier for peopleAs far as the fitness for vehicles goes while private vehicles need to conduct fitness test and get a certificate after 15 years the commercial ones have to do it first after two years of purchase and then annually This has irked the auto rickshaw and taxi unions and transporters the mostStay fitAs per the amendment fitness certificate for an auto rickshaw will be Rs 400 and Rs 600 for manual and automatic Earlier they used to pay flat Rs 200 The cabs and commercial vehicles used to pay Rs 400 flat but now they too will pay Rs 600 for manual clutchgear vehicle and Rs 1000 for vehicle having automatic transmission facilityldquoThese autos taxis and tourist permit vehicles have to renew their fitness certificate every year Many drivers and permit holders delay in doing it as there was a marginal penalty to it but amendment has also increased this penalty amountrdquo said another RTO officer For the renewal of fitness certificates it used to be Rs 100 after a fortnight of missing the deadline which has now become Rs 200 as one time payment and additional Rs 50 per day after expiry of fitness certificate Similarly issuing or renewal of all India permit authentication will now cost Rs 10000 for bus truck and tourist taxi owners that previously used to cost just Rs 500License to hikeThe amendment has also increased the fees for learning licence which will now cost Rs 150 instead of Rs 30 While giving test for a permanent licence it would be Rs 300 instead of Rs 50 Until now there was no fee for reappearing for a driving test after failing it but now an extra Rs 50 would be levied each time Adding new class on the licence will cost Rs 500 that used to cost just Rs 200Finally renewing a licence will continue to cost Rs 200 Wanting an international driving license will cost Rs 1000 If someone wants licenses for both two and four wheelers then they have to pay Rs 500 instead of Rs 200 The driving schools which for long had randomly mushroomed across Mumbai too will have to be careful and cannot get away with simply registering themselves Issuance or renewal of new license for a driving school will now cost Rs 10000 instead of Rs 2500Only couple of days ago these unions had a meeting with the fourmember team of BC Khatua on coming out with formula for determining fares This sudden hike in fees could mean that there is the possibility of a fare hike as well