Autowallahs denied tax exemption

HYDERABAD: The Telangana government had issued orders last month giving quarterly tax exemption for passenger, goods auto-rickshaws and tractors. However, transport officials in 10 districts across Telangana are not honouring their own government orders (GOs).
In Telangana, there are over 5.76 lakh autos and in Greater Hyderabad itself there are nearly 1.5 lakh autos. According to transport department sources, there were 6.60 lakh tractor-trailers in the state.
On October 16, the state government had issued three different GOs giving quarterly motor vehicle tax exemption for passenger autos, goods autos up to 3,000 kilo grams and tractor-trailers.
However, several vehicle owners who fall under this category got a rude shock when they visited their local regional transport authority (RTA) office to seek fitness certificate or transfer of ownership and other related services. The RTA authorities directed them that they first clear their quarterly tax arrears before they get the requested documents.
"After the government clearly gave orders, how can RTA officials overrule it and demand tax. It was Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) poll promise, which was implemented after much delay. Now, the RTA officials are not implementing it despite these GOs were issued a month ago,'' Telangana Auto Unions Joint Action Committee member A Sathi Reddy told TOI.
Autorickshaw owners were asked to pay quarterly tax of June and September to get the service. When the motorists referred the government's decision on tax exemption, the officials reportedly claimed that they are yet to get the internal order. Until the exemptions were given in October, passenger autorickshaws used to pay Rs 110 quarterly tax, while Rs 300 was collected from owners of tractors-trailer.
When contacted, joint transport commissioner, Hyderabad, T Raghunath admitted that implementation of the new GOs was yet to start as changes need to be done in RTA software. "A letter was written to the transport commissioner about the need to make changes in software to implement tax exemption for the beneficiaries. Shortly, the changes will be done,'' Raghnath said. In the existing system, fitness or ownership change could be executed only if quarterly tax arrears were cleared and up to date.