Staff Reporter
GUWAHATI: The State Transport Department is to recover around Rs 500 crore from the vehicle owners of the state in the form of tax. The department is carrying out a massive drive to recover the dues.
Teams of officials from the DTOs (district transport offices) are going door to door to collect taxes these days. So much so that the department will keep its offices open on Good Friday (March 29) and Sunday (March 31) for the collection of vehicle taxes.
According to sources, in Guwahati alone, defaulting vehicle owners owe the department around Rs 150 crore. The list of defaulters has names of big companies, coke and cement industries, construction companies, owners of luxurious cars, etc. The department has sent SMS to around one lakh vehicle owners to clear their due taxes before March 31, 2024.
The revenue collection of the department was Rs 1,368 crore in 2022–23. Of this, the collection in Kamrup (M) is Rs 364 crore.
The revenue collection of the State Transport Department rises in consonance with the increase in the number of vehicles in the state.
In the financial year 2000–01, the number of motor vehicles registered in Assam was 52,518; that number increased to 5,73,958 in 2022–23.
The number of motor vehicles on the road was 5,34,885 in the state. It increased to 45,81,330 in 2022–23.
According to sources, a section of construction companies and other big companies use heavy vehicles in their construction work without showing the vehicles in their records. Most such companies show their heavy vehicles as defunct ones and evade taxes. This led the DTOs to conduct on-the-spot verification of such vehicles. A section of other vehicle owners run their vehicles without renewing their documents.
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