[VANOS]

hi guys,
My one of my business is running tourist taxis. now the government asks us to pay life tax for cabs. a question? what life would you think be left on an indica after 5 years of abuse? scrap. that's all that would be left. also consider the value of a tourist taxi vs a private car in second hand market. we wouldn't get even get 1/3 the price. so why change a structure that has helped us survive so long to one we can't afford? apart from this we would have to pay for permits, other state charges, fitness certificate etc, which a private car does not have to. I can make a lot more money by claiming my vehicle to be a private car, hence avoid all the extra permit charges etc and loss of value, so it basically means the government is encouraging people to cheat them? I don't understand. and worst of all, no papers have moved from the R.T.O. ie the Regional Transport Office till they get a clarification. so we people (cab owners) in the mean time during the peak of the holiday season sit and lose business due to lack of vehicle documentation, preventing us from entering other states.
I request you guys to please voice your opinion on this issue.

P.S. Mods please feel free to move this to anywhere you feel fit. I started this as new since i did not find anything on this subject.

[Ashley2]

This is one such crappy decision as a part of recent increase in tax structure. Entry tax for other state buses, omni bus tax for TN buses were also revised .
One of the reason in my view is to keep a better price gap between private and STU fares, so that STU occupancy is not affected.
But for taxi's I know its without baseless.
Instead of doing these, they could have allowed registering sleeper buses there by avoiding income loss, as currently they are going to other states only.

[bejoy]

Originally Posted by VANOS

hi guys,
My one of my business is running tourist taxis. now the government asks us to pay life tax for cabs. a question?

This is absolutely nonsense, just to make the state coffers richer. Very valid points that you noted.

Recent TN govt order steeply increased the entry tax for buses (11 seater and above). From Rs. 50 to Rs. 600 per seat!
Expect dip in tourist foot fall into TN from Kerala, especially the college, school and pilgrimage tours.

Here is an article from The Hindu:
The Hindu : States / Kerala : Apprehension over new Tamil Nadu Vehicle Entry Tax

Vacationing or pilgrimage trips to Tamil Nadu are poised to become a big-ticket item for those in Kerala who depend upon contract carriages. The Tamil Nadu Assembly had recently passed a Bill through which the entry tax of vehicles going into that State has been heavily hiked.

When contacted the office of the Tamil Nadu Transport Commissioner informed that the new vehicle entry tax system has not been implemented. But it is in the process of being implemented with retrospective effect from April 1, 2012. When asked to explain the retrospective effect part, the officer only said that the details on it are being worked out.

Tourist bus operators in Kerala say that the hike will badly hit their business. Every day at least 4000 big and small contract carriages from Kerala reach the Velankanni-Nagore pilgrimage areas alone and during weekends the figure even touches 7000 contract carriages.

A good number of such vehicles also reach Madurai and Palani with pilgrims from Kerala. The vacation season also witnesses a heavy flow of tourists from Kerala to Courtallam, Ooty, Kodaikanal and Kanniyakumari. All this flow will be badly hit through the new entry tax system.

Under the existing system, a Kerala registered contract carriage can enter Tamil Nadu by paying a permit fee ranging from Rs.300 to Rs.400 (depending upon the seating capacity) at the Kerala RTO check post and enter Tamil Nadu. On entering that State the permit provided by Kerala should be sealed and endorsed by the Tamil Nadu RTO check post on the other side of the border.

Tourist bus driver P. Jerome said that Rs.50 (for which no receipt will be issued) has to be paid to the Tamil Nadu check post for getting the permit sealed. All this is paid by the persons who have engaged the vehicle. But under the new tax system, vehicles with more than eleven seats will have to pay a tax of Rs.600 per seat.

That works out to Rs.27, 000 as tax for a forty five seat tourist bus entering Tamil Nadu. For tourist maxi cabs the rate fixed is Rs.75 per seat. It means that an additional Rs.450 for those entering Tamil Nadu in a tourist maxi cab. The permit duration for the vehicle will be seven days.

But tourist vehicle operators said that even though the new system has not been notified, some of the transport authority check post officials in Tamil Nadu are already forcing contract carriages from Kerala to pay the new tax. This has compelled several tourist buses with tourists to drop the tour programme at the check post and return, Mr. Jerome said.

When the officials at the Puliayarai check post of Tirunelveli district Tamil Nadu across the Aryankavu border of Kerala was contacted over phone by The Hindu, it was informed that the new tax system had come into effect and the new tax will be imposed on any contract vehicle entering Tamil Nadu.

However when the Ambarampalayam check post officials of Coimbatore District were contacted, they said that no government order on levying the new tax has been issued and that the old system prevails. In the backdrop of this confusion, many contract carriage operators are not accepting tour programmes into Tamil Nadu.

As a result of this even though it is peak tour period, many such vehicles are lying idle at their respective stands. The contract carriage operators wanted the State government to intervene in the issue since it is the livelihood of thousands of persons in Kerala.

Six months ago Karnataka had also similarly hiked the entry tax into that State. As a result of that hike, hardly any Kerala registered tourist buses can now been seen operating the daily Bangalore Kerala and vice versa services. Tourist vehicle operators in Kerala said that Tamil Nadu also implementing such a tax could severely hit their livelihood. There is no such tax for vehicles from those States entering Kerala, they added.