NT NETWORK
PANAJI
Fulfilling a budgetary promise of rationalising tariffs on high-end vehicles, the state cabinet on Wednesday vide the Goa Motor Vehicle Amendment (Ordinance) 2017 reduced the registration tax on cars by two-three per cent.
For the cars costing above Rs 25 lakh but less than Rs 35 lakh, the registration tax has been brought down to 13 per cent from 18 per cent.
For the vehicles costing between Rs 10 lakh to Rs 15 lakh and between Rs 15 lakh to Rs 25 lakh the tax rate has been lowered by one per cent and two per cent.
There is no change in the registration tax on cars costing below Rs 6 lakh and Rs 10 lakh which stands at nine per cent and 11 per cent. The government has also introduced a new tax rate of 14 per cent for cars costing above Rs 35 lakh.
Similarly, the motor vehicle tax rate on high-end two-wheelers costing above Rs 3 lakh has also been reduced from 20 per cent to 15 per cent. For the motorcycles, scooters and autorickshaws that cost between Rs 1.5 lakh to Rs 3 lakh, the reduction in tax is by three per cent, viz. from 15 per cent to 12 per cent.
For motorcycles, scooters and autorickshaws costing less than Rs 1.5 lakh, the reduction in registration tax is by one per cent to nine per cent.
Rationalising taxes on the high-end vehicles had been proposed by Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar in his 2017-18 budget speech.
“Purchasers of high-end vehicles choose to evade the levy by registering their vehicles outside the state, causing loss to the exchequer,” Parrikar had said.
The government has said that lowering registration tax on the high-end cars will result in loss of Rs 6 crore but it will earn through increased registrations.
Lowering taxes had been a major demand of Goa’s automobile dealers since September 2016. They had complained of loss in sales and threatened to retrench workers unless their demand was met.