THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The motor vehicles department (MVD) seized a total of 10 vehicles in a drive against vehicles registered in Puducherry under bogus addresses in the past two days. Also, Rs 42.78 lakh was collected as tax, during the drive.
The vehicles, three each from
Wayanad and Kollam, two each from Kozhikode and Kannur and one from
Pathanamthitta were seized by the MVD special squads. Among these, one genuine case was identified and the vehicle was released soon.
The owner of vehicle PY 05 A 3333 seized from Pathanamthitta paid tax of Rs 10.99 lakh, while the vehicles owners of PY 05 A 5956, PY 01CL 5555 and PY 01 CQ 966 seized from Kollam paid Rs 14.30 lakh, Rs 11.43 lakh and Rs 6.05 lakh respectively. The rest of the vehicles are under MVD’s custody.
“Notice to pay tax was sent to the owners before the vehicles were seized. The seized vehicles are luxury vehicles of BMW, Benz and Range Rover. As per the amnesty scheme declared in state budget, the owners of vehicles registered with fake addresses need to pay the tax by April 30, while many such vehicle owners thought that the norms have been relaxed.
Legal steps will be taken against the owners of vehicles, who refuse to pay the tax and their vehicles will be confiscated. The case related to forging documents to create fake address proof will be investigated by crime branch,” said joint transport commissioner
Rajeev Puthalath.
MVD has identified more than 2,000 vehicles plying in the state which are registered in Puducherry. Among these, only 200-odd vehicle owners have paid the tax and re-registered their vehicles in their state. An amount of Rs 14 crore has been collected as tax from these vehicle owners after the drive against vehicles with
fake registration began a few months ago.
“We have estimated a total tax amount in the range of Rs 200 crore to Rs 300 crore from the vehicles registered in Puducherry with fake addresses, which cost Rs 30 lakh to Rs 1 crore. As the rules are made stringent, an additional revenue of Rs 100 crore is expected from vehicle registration in the state, which is likely to increase as no vehicle owner would take the trouble to register with fake addresses in other states,” added Puthalath.
