Beware if you’ve evaded tax on your high-end car

The Regional Transport Office has begun a crack down on people who illegitimately evade tax on their expensive vehicles by getting it registered outside the state

Beware if you've evaded tax on your high-end car

The Regional Transport Office has begun a crack down on people who illegitimately evade tax on their expensive vehicles by getting it registered outside the state

There's bad news for those who had been illegitimately evading taxes by getting their vehicles registered from other cities. The Regional Transport Office (RTO) has begun a crack down on such people.

For months now, the RTO has been tracking the sale of high-end vehicles happening in Karnataka.

By getting their vehicles registered in Pondicherry, people
are saving a huge amount of money on taxes

On comparing the number of vehicles that acquired registrations from the Karnataka RTO, the officials realised that many of these vehicles were registered at the Pondicherry and Kerala RTOs.

"As compared to Karnataka, the vehicle registration charges in Pondicherry are quite nominal. Hence, people are buying and plying the cars here, but are getting it registered there. This is a clear violation of the Karnataka Motor Vehicle Act," said Syed Shafi Ahmed, Regional Transport Officer.

"By getting their vehicles registered in Pondicherry, people are saving a huge amount of money on taxes. If a person registers his vehicle in Karnataka, he has to pay 18 per cent of the cost of the car as tax, along with 11.5 per cent cess on the tax amount," informed, Syed Shafi Ahmed, RTO.

Hence, the RTO is acting tough on such offenders and is checking records of showrooms selling high-end cars. "We have formed several squads, and each squad comprises of five inspectors.
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They are conducting elaborate investigations and are checking all vehicles that have been previously registered from different places and are now plying on Bangalore roads," said Joint Commissioner of RTO Kumar.

Explaining how the drive is yielding results, Krishna Nanda, inspector, Electronic City RTO, said, "We found a vehicle that had been plying on city roads for two months without Karnataka registration.
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We approached the owner to seize his car, however he agreed to pay Rs 57 lakh tax for the Rs 6 crore vehicle he owned."

The RTO had been losing out on at least Rs 5 crore per month because of these registration discrepancies.

Taxing job
The Central RTO had checked documentation of 150 high-end cars last week, out of which 60 car owners paid their taxes.

The East RTO checked documentation of 65 high-end cars and recovered taxes of 35 cars, while the North RTO checked documentation of over 50 high-end cars