In Karnataka, green tax on vehicles older than 15 years to go up from today

Starting Friday, owners of vehicles older than 15 years will have to pay a high amount to get fitness certificates as per the revised green tax announced by the Centre, with the fresh fee for some classes of vehicles set to go up by 15 to 60 times.

Karnataka has been collecting green tax since April 1, 2002. However, the state government had fixed a nominal fee at Rs 250 for two-wheelers, Rs 500 for four-wheelers and Rs 200 for all transport vehicles aged above seven years.

Last year, the Union government issued a notification to revise the fee for vehicles older than 15 years, after a previous proposal to scrap such vehicles was opposed. The revision will come into effect from April 1, 2022.

The revised fee will affect both the private vehicles and transporters using vehicles for commercial purposes. For instance owners of old scooters and bikes have to pay Rs 400-500 as fee for testing of vehicle apart from the Rs 1,000 fee for fitness certificate (FC). Owners of old cars will have to shell out about Rs 4,500. The highest hike in fee is for goods vehicle transporters whose fee has gone up from Rs 200 to Rs 10,000 (medium) and Rs 12,000 (large).

As of March 2021, Karnataka had a total of 70.29 lakh vehicles aged more than 15 years. Of them, two-wheelers constituted 45.62 lakh, followed by cars (11.7 lakh), trucks and lorries (2.4 lakh), light goods vehicles (2.19 lakh) among others.

Narendra Holkar, Additional Commissioner of Transport (Enforcement), said the new rules are being implemented across the country. “The Centre’s rule is the same for all. Besides the FC, vehicles older than 15 years have to renew the registration,” he added.

Federation of Lorry Owners Association president B Channa Reddy said the latest fee imposed in the name of controlling pollution will only act as an instrument of harassment. “The idea that old trucks ply thousands of km everyday, contributing to pollution is wrong. It is business prudence for transporters to run new and capable vehicles on national routes and good quality vehicles on interstate routes. Old vehicles are operated on short-distance routes. The new rules will only help corrupt officials to extract more money,” he said.

G R Shanmugappa of the South Zone Motor Transporters Welfare Association said truck owners of the south Indian states will meet in Chennai on April 3 to decide on the matter. “We can’t accept this rule. The contribution of transporters to the economy, in the form of cess on diesel and the servicing of interest from NBFCs has been overlooked by the government. We will decide on the next course of action in a week,” he said.

Radhakrishna Holla of the Karnataka State Travel Operators Association said the government has failed to look into the plight of the public in the aftermath of the pandemic. “Both operators and individual owners are not in a position to scrap old vehicles to avoid green tax. We are still reeling under the losses caused by Covid,” he said.

Check out DH's latest videos: