Road Tax For Private Vehicles Up By 2 Per Cent In Maharashtra

The rollout of the GST brought a much-needed relief for Mumbaikars who have been paying through their noses to buy cars. Taxes have historically been high in Mumbai as they pay 4 per cent octroi on top of the ex-showroom price and then road tax on top of all the taxes. Not to mention, the ex-showroom price itself came with its layers of excise, VAT, infrastructure and other taxes.

Tax in one form or another just stayed around, and the government used all the possible synonyms of 'tax' to get as much out of the citizens without creating an apparent duplicity. 'Tax', 'cess', 'octroi', 'excise', 'levy', 'fee' and 'toll', all of these terms mean the same thing. GST not only got the confusion out of the way but also took care of the cascading effect of multiple taxes. We previously paid taxes on top of taxes and so on.

GST ended the octroi and other Local Body Taxes (LBT) and brought down car and bike prices considerably lower in Mumbai and other cities in Maharashtra. To make up for the loss, the state has now revised the road tax and added 2 per cent to the existing registration fee.

The older slabs for private car registration stood at:

CNG:

• < Rs 10 lakh: 5 per cent
• Rs 10 lakh - Rs 20 lakh: 6 per cent

Petrol:

• < Rs 10 lakh: 9 per cent
• Rs 10 lakh - Rs 20 lakh: 10 per cent
• >Rs 20 lakh: 11 per cent

Diesel:

• < Rs 10 lakh: 11 per cent
• Rs 10 lakh - Rs 20 lakh: 12 per cent
• > Rs 20 lakh: 12 per cent

The revised slabs are:

CNG:

• < Rs 10 lakh: 7 per cent
• Rs 10 lakh - Rs 20 lakh: 8 per cent

Petrol:

• < Rs 10 lakh: 11 per cent
• Rs 10 lakh - Rs 20 lakh: 12 per cent
• >Rs 20 lakh: 13 per cent

Diesel:

• < Rs 10 lakh: 13 per cent
• Rs 10 lakh - Rs 20 lakh: 14 per cent
• > Rs 20 lakh: 15 per cent

For company-registered vehicles, the registration fee will be double. Two wheeler registration fees are also up 2 per cent from the earlier slab of 8-10 per cent.

However, the silver lining here is that the overall prices will still be lower for Mumbai dwellers as the 4 per cent of octroi is replaced with 2 per cent of extra road tax, which would still be less than the pre-GST on-road price.

For imported cars, the road tax is limited to a maximum of Rs 20 lakh. Before GST, it was set at 20 per cent making it pricier to register a multi-crore supercar. The lower tax will encourage millionaires to register the car in Maharashtra. This should put an end to finding back doors for registering the imported car in one of the surrounding states.

Also Read: Car Prices Fall Across India After GST