Joshi asks state governments to arrive at consensus to rationalise 'motor vehicle taxes'

New Delhi, Feb 13 (ANI): Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Dr. C.P. Joshi has urged all state governments to arrive at a consensus to rationalise 'motor vehicle taxes' and harmonise rates to facilitate the easy movement of vehicles across the country.

Joshi, who presided over the "34th Meeting of Transport Development Council" organized by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways here on Monday, said that there is an urgent need to rationalise the 'motor vehicle taxes' in order to make the road transport system in the country hassle free and for seamless movement of goods and tourists vehicles.

There are at present significant variations across the states in respect of rate, base and methodology of collection of tax.

With the advancement of information technology, it has now become imperative that seemless movement of vehicles across the states which facilitated so that the transaction costs that are involved in movement of goods nationally gets reduced and this benefit is passed on to the citizens.

With this objective in mind, there is a need to rationalise the existing motor vehicle taxation system in order to reap benefits of technology.

Dr. Joshi informed the participants that a very important decision for introduction of a New National Permit scheme was approved in the 33rd meeting of Transport Development Council.

The new National Permit scheme has facilitated the transporters to move goods vehicles across the country and the system is running very efficiently with the help of NIC, State Bank of India and Principal Accounts Office of this Ministry. The transporters' community is also largely satisfied after the introduction of this scheme.

Dr. Joshi emphasized on the need to be given greater attention relates to road safety with massive investment in roads and the exponential growth in the number of vehicles, it has become necessary to have a system, which integrates all disciplines that influence road safety.

There is an urgent need to recognize the worsening road safety situation that has resulted in rising road fatalities.

Taking into consideration that India has one of the highest road accidents in the world, it is high time that road safety measures get due priority by the State Governments in their future plans.

A meeting of National Road Safety Council will be convened very soon and the state governments are requested to come up with concrete action plans in mitigating the road accidents in the country including identification of accident prone spots and identification of reasons for accidents at those spots and taking up measures to mitigate factors at these spots.

Referring to various technological advancements in the road sector recently, Dr. Joshi said that the National Register and National Transport Portal were launched in July 2011.

The objective of 100 percent connectivity and computerisation of database of all RTOs in all states / union territories has been achieved.

Inter-state check posts in the country during the XII Five Year Plan to move towards border-less and paper-less movement of goods across state borders reducing transaction costs and logistic costs to the economy has also been planned to set up.

The ministry will continue its efforts in making the best use of available modern technology for the facilitation of general public, transporters and the transport departments. (ANI)