JOIN USPan-India truck permit for Rs 15K
As per the proposal before the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, for issuing national permit to commercial goods carrying vehicles, a one-time annual fee will be collected from truck operators, which will allow vehicles to ply throughout the country.
State Road Transport Undertaking, a non-government organisation, will act as the central collection agent, a senior official in the ministry told Deccan Herald, adding that that the centrally-collected money will be distributed among the states by taking the average of the last three years’ collection of respective states.
Action plan
Initially, the central agent will collect money from truck operators through State Bank of India (SBI) branches. Subsequently, other banks — Union Bank of India, ICICI, HDFC and Punjab National Bank — will also be roped in for the job.
Once the truck owner applies for national permit at Regional Transport Office (RTO), he will have to pay Rs 15,000 as annual fee at SBI and will get a receipt. Subsequently, the bank will also send another receipt to the RTO office concerned via online. After verification, the applicant will receive an SMS stating the position of his application and when the permit will be issued.
The ministry has convened a meeting of the state transport ministers on April 16 to get their final approval for the new system and enable it to implement it from May 1. Though the Centre has received approval from all the states for the new scheme, in the meeting the ministry will explain them about how the system works, the official said.
At present, a truck owner has to pay Rs 20,000 annually to the state transport department which allows him access to his home state and three neighbouring states. For each additional state, he has to pay Rs 5,000 more.
Truck drivers have been demanding to scrap the existing system. At present, if a truck runs from Srinagar to Tamil Nadu, the owner has to pay over Rs 60,000 just for interstate permit.
Meanwhile, the All India Motor Transport Congress (AIMTC), which had threatened to go on a national-wide strike demanding the early implementation of the new system, has expressed happiness over the new system saying it will boost the truck business in India.