[voyageur]

The government officials, ministers and other responsible people should be held accountable for their deeds. I don't believe this democracy is of/by/for the people. If we fail to pay tax, there are IT raids and recovery done. The tarmac along the NH47 in kerala doesn't last for 1 single year. Even if its repaired, after a season of heavy rains its in the same old condition. This practice of repairing and being washed out has been going on here since ages

Originally Posted by ecosport

Although a single tax system across the country sounds nice, I disagree with that. We are a large country and needs more federalism and not centralization. Each state should be allowed to create their own policies so that they can be tailored to the region.

About the taxes, i don't mind if its state or centre, provided we have some betterment of facilities. All I see is betterment of SCAMS

[AkashN]

The tax on second car can in a way encourage CARPOOLING-One initiative efforts for which are really lacking in Indian humanitarians.
Families or in fact joint families who ply from home to work on same route in different cars can go economical - only the step taken can be a bit seemingly harsh now.

[AB@TVMBHP]

I would say that the move is absolutely absurd. Having a second car in the family could be according to the need. For example there are two cars in my house a fulence and an amaze. My dad takes the fulence to office and I take the amaze for my need. If there is no 2nd vehicle I would have to use public transport which is not practical .
And for example if a family have a farm house and they need a pickup for the use in farm ,, it is simply stupid in charging extra tax for the pickup and its absurd in calling it luxury tax.

[zenren]

Originally Posted by AB@TVMBHP

I would say that the move is absolutely absurd. Having a second car in the family could be according to the need. For example there are two cars in my house a fulence and an amaze. My dad takes the fulence to office and I take the amaze for my need. If there is no 2nd vehicle I would have to use public transport which is not practical .
And for example if a family have a farm house and they need a pickup for the use in farm ,, it is simply stupid in charging extra tax for the pickup and its absurd in calling it luxury tax.

Do read the thread or the news articles fully to understand the proposal, instead of catching a couple of words and commenting on the same.

Father and son owning a car each doesn't come under the definition of the 2nd car - its only applicable in case of husband and wife owning one car each.

This tax is for personal vehicles. If you need a pickup for your farm house, you'll most likely be registering it as a commercial vehicle as it is much cheaper than a private vehicle.

[shinuak]

Tax on second car need not be viewed as anti-citizen if the implementation is proper. Infact the additional revenue can be used by the Govt to build more/improve existing infrastructure including roads, parking facility, flyovers etc. But the way men in power loot and make fools out of the general public may be what is causing heartburn to most of the people who think about it as additional burden. Also the possible implementation flaws are what is making me skeptical. One recent example is the UID card which is great concept , but implemented shoddily. This concept should be debated, discussed with a panel of sensible people and can be fine tuned before roll out to address exceptional cases like joint families, major children, landlord-tenant cases etc to name a few.

[sgiitk]

Originally Posted by shinuak

.... the additional revenue can be used by the Govt to build more/improve existing infrastructure including roads, parking facility, flyovers etc.

Ever treed to find out where the road tax, cess on Petrol and Diesel, etc. are going. Are they been used for the transportation infrastructure. definitely NO. The cess is specially for roads. Most vanishes into the Consolidated fund of India and its state equivalent with peanuts coming out.

[avira_tk]

Originally Posted by zenren

Do read the thread or the news articles fully to understand the proposal, instead of catching a couple of words and commenting on the same.

Father and son owning a car each doesn't come under the definition of the 2nd car - its only applicable in case of husband and wife owning one car each.

This tax is for personal vehicles. If you need a pickup for your farm house, you'll most likely be registering it as a commercial vehicle as it is much cheaper than a private vehicle.

The law can be amended later on to say that vehicles registered under the same address can be taxxed, just like any other do-gooder legislation that Kerala excels in. This would be problematic just like the LPG cylinder issue, those in rural areas had to run around for a few months to convince the pencil pushers that unlike cities, in rural areas 2 or more people have the same address - the folks at the post office know who the addressee is.

I think the pickup is a generic term, most of us don't keep our Thars and Boleros as lifestyle vehicleS, last mile connectivity requires an offroad capable vehicle and no, registering as a commercial vehicle is a pain, it's for personal use alone and out of a need not for style.

[anand_lukose]

If the intention of the Kerala govt is to dissuade people from buying more cars and make them use public transport more, then it is a good decision. It might be unpopular but its a good beginning. I see it as a honest attempt to do something good.

I understand that there is some pain involved but reading through the thread, it really appears that Kerala is currently blessed with much lower tax rates compared to the other states. I believe fuel prices are comparatively lower as well. Imagine a double whammy of Higher taxes and higher fuel prices suddenly hitting you? Hence, the extra overhead to the end consumer in kerala is a small enough price to pay. Not much to worry about.

However, there are genuine questions raised by the forum as well. Unless we see concrete details of how its going to be implemented, concerns are going to be there. On the top of my head, Kerala has one of the highest divorce rates in the country as well. how is the RTO going to keep track of this stuff ? more documentation and pain for the consumer !

That being said the alternative of using the public transport is a mess here. just simply compare Kerala RTC to Karnataka RTC or TN and one will understand. Why dont people allow the concept of shared taxi/auto ? No one apparently wants that ! An honest attempt to bring that will result in stiff reference.

The forum asked what the govt is doing with all this tax income. Why cant they maintain roads ? The forum has also answered that. Kerala has one the nation's highest road density. To maintain all of that at top shape needs a lot of revenue. I honestly dont believe the Road/Fuel tax is enough to do that. I guess that is one more reason we we see more of BOT/BOO (Build Operate Transfer etc ) concepts.

[srishiva]

Aren't we the kings of owning properties etc in other's names? How will that be prevented in this case?
People protest against some unique ID which could be used in such cases.

[zenren]

Originally Posted by srishiva

Aren't we the kings of owning properties etc in other's names? How will that be prevented in this case?
People protest against some unique ID which could be used in such cases.

Unlike most other assets, car is a movable asset and can easily be subject to theft. Even during a documents check by cops, it'll be a pain to explain why you are using the car in case you are not related to the registered owner in any way. So it might not be a good idea to register the car in someone else's name just to save a few bucks.