Pan-India permit for tourist buses soon

Tourist bus owners can heave a sigh of relief, as the Centre, as per their demand, is planning to introduce a national permit fee, covering all of India, one a one-time-annual-fee-per-bus basis.

According to a proposal before the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways for issuing all-India permit to tourist buses plying between states, a one-time annual fee will be collected, and the vehicle will be allowed to in all states without being charged any further at the entry point of a state.

The system will be on the lines of the annual national permit fee introduced for trucks by the Centre a few years ago. The annual fee as per the scheme is just Rs 15,000 per truck.

Following the successful implementation of the earlier scheme, tourist bus owners had urged the Centre to introduce a similar system for them to reduce the hassles involved in the payment of fees for crossing each state boundary.

The ministry has constituted a high-level panel to work out the modalities of the new proposal in consultation with the states. The committee will study how much annual fee should be collected from buses based on their seating capacity, and submit its recommendation to the ministry in two months.

At present, tourist buses have to pay a certain amount of road tax in the state where they are registered, and make an entry in their permit books of how many states they want to ply. While entering each state, the buses have to pay road tax fixed by that state based on the number of seats in the vehicle. 

Bus owners have been urging the Centre to introduce a single all-India permit system for them by collecting a certain amount as tax in advance.

Under the new format, the Centre will collect a fee from buses through an external agency, like the Transport Development Council, and distribute it to the states.

Though some states have expressed concern over the loss of revenue at the recent Transport Development Council meeting, Union Road Transport Minister Oscar Fernandes, who chaired the meeting, promised to address their concerns.