[GTO]

The ministry may impose a whopping 8% cess on cars to fund public transportation projects and highway construction. Indian cars are already amongst the most heavily taxed worldwide and if this move goes through....we will end up paying Rs. 15,000 more for an 800 and about 75,000 more for a Corolla / Optra.

TOI made a statement that more gains could be had if the government made optimum and correct use of the current tax revenue. I couldnt agree more.

Source : Times of India article.

[himanshugoswami]

another case of hitting soft targets. already the salaried middle class is the favorite whipping boys og the govt., while rich politicos, businessmen et al merrily evade taxes.

The govt. knows that people need to commute, hence blatantly taxes petrol to cross subsidise other products. But thsi moce to make cars so much more expesive is sure to hit auto sales ral hard.

lets see how the industry lobby reacts to this.

[kumar2007]

They loot us in this country. Highest income taxes too [not the rate but the slabs at which they apply] and we get NOTHING in return. All the money is either piddled away or lines the politicians pockets. Just my rant.

[Amey]

Correct me if i am wrong but dont we already pay Toll for the new 4 Lane Highways ?
Where does the Toll money go if they want to levy a Cess to finance the Highway construction ?
Dont we already pay RTO Tax at the time of registration which is quite substantial ? Where does that go ?
We pay Income tax, Service Tax, VAT, FBT and what not....

Sad and infuriating i say !

[LLL]

Yep, read the article this morning and my initial reaction is not allowed to be written here.

1. Lets see how industry reacts. They are already looking at a dull festive season and if this cess is levied, this may drive away quite a few car buyers and may break the back of a few manufacturers.

2. Can this be a planted article from manufacturers to scare the buyers into making the bookings before the price hike? You would have seen that line before...

Hopefully someone files a PIL on this.

[lurker]

that article seems to be pure psy-ops.

Already India is one of the highest taxed countries in fuel.

2. Can this be a planted article from manufacturers to scare the buyers into making the bookings before the price hike? You would have seen that line before...

possibly.

[dadu]

I agree with all the statements here, I remember when Haryana went DRY (in terms of liquor), they raised the electicity charges etc but when after 1-2 years they realised its eating into their revenue, they came back to being a non-dry state but did not reverse the charges raised earlier, what a loot.

I also remember that Rajiv gandhi had once made a statement that for Re. 1 that government spends on development only 10 paise reaches the end user.

They need a more transparent, controlled and managed governance and not just to keep on increasing the taxes etc.

Originally Posted by kumar2007

They loot us in this country. Highest income taxes too [not the rate but the slabs at which they apply] and we get NOTHING in return. All the money is either piddled away or lines the politicians pockets. Just my rant.

Originally Posted by Amey

Correct me if i am wrong but dont we already pay Toll for the new 4 Lane Highways ?
Where does the Toll money go if they want to levy a Cess to finance the Highway construction ?
Dont we already pay RTO Tax at the time of registration which is quite substantial ? Where does that go ?
We pay Income tax, Service Tax, VAT, FBT and what not....

Sad and infuriating i say !

[mail4ajo]

Originally Posted by Amey

Correct me if i am wrong but dont we already pay Toll for the new 4 Lane Highways ?
Where does the Toll money go if they want to levy a Cess to finance the Highway construction ?

Thats for recouping the cost of the already constructed highway. Cant help this, but cant they just keep it to luxury cars that cost of 15L plus? The 8% cess reduction for small cars will just get rolled back.

what will happen to poor Tata's small car?

[theMAG]

Originally Posted by himanshugoswami

another case of hitting soft targets. already the salaried middle class is the favorite whipping boys og the govt., while rich politicos, businessmen et al merrily evade taxes.

Well said. They should have politicians pay hefty fines everytime they disrupt a house session - RS, LS or the local State Assemblies. That alone should give this country enough funds to even develop roads in neighboring countries.


They should be looking to widen the tax net rather than beat the hapless salaried man all the time. Its very undermining to salaried people to be expected to pay these special "taxes" and "cesses" to, in effect, give the non-tax paying sections freedom to continue not paying their taxes.

[ashams_s]

why cars only above 15L? howz this magic figure arrived at..the D,E segmenters are already priced 2X times their standard prices abroad...and they dont carry the full specs either here.. I dont undestand why the govt and the most sections of public believe in this 'hit the well endowed" policy..

Ash

[neoonwheels]

Wow.... here comes another way to get robbed... Now I wonder why I pay toll whenever I go through the exp highway?? 8% is gonna be high as the price of the car increases.. I already bugged by paying so many taxes... Income tax, service tax on everything, VAT etc etc... We, salaried people are the maximum tax payers in this country..

[snaronikar]

AAAAAHHHH!!! IT HURTS !!!!! It will surely pinch the new car buyers and used car buyers also. As the prices will definately go up. It's unfortunate to be born in India and that to in salaried (Middle) Class. For whatever reasons, like the govt want to fill in their coffers, politicans, allies request (as they have to pay money to keep them in their fold), they think of all these. Its very irritating. Big businessmen are never asked about taxes. Poor never pay taxes. Its only the salaried class that is suffering and will do so in future also.

[ashams_s]

The road tax + proposed cess will come around 20% and with that money I could build a road or a small bridge somwhere..Why not ask ppl to build infrastructure themselves..do some favour to the govt guys and make sure money is well utilized

[Amey]

Originally Posted by mail4ajo

Thats for recouping the cost of the already constructed highway. Cant help this, but cant they just keep it to luxury cars that cost of 15L plus? The 8% cess reduction for small cars will just get rolled back.

what will happen to poor Tata's small car?

Huh ?? Why the isolation of people with cars worth 15L + ??
Even if they go buy a 15L+ car, they do so with their 'HARD EARNED' money.
Also the rule HAS to be same for all.

Instead of hitting the honest tax payers, why doesn't the govt. broaden the tax net ?

Big businessmen are never asked about taxes

What makes you think so ?

[Zappo]

Two ways to prevent such misadventures.
1. File a PIL. Does not take much. Create a strong case on why this is wrong and how badly it will hurt the salaried class. Also outline how the government already has so many cess, toll etc in the name of infrastructure. And dash of a letter with this case to the Supreme Court. Let a good few people do it and SC will convert it into a suo moto PIL.

2. Vote the government out of power. Immensely doable. Start floating mails to everyone and sundry about the high handedness of the government and urge people to ensure that they go out enmasse and make a decisive statement. Politicos are damn PR savvy. The moment they realize that this thing is going to boomerang on them they will immediately retract the whole idea with lot of placating statements on how 'the whole thing was misquoted'.