I had pointed out the sad state of affairs within Indian Union in this earlier post: State of Mind

here is more: I had transferred a vehicle i owned in Hyderabad to bangalore this January. It cost me almost 13% of the vehicle cost as I had to pay the Life Time Tax etc. all over again in Bangalore. I was told at the time that I can apply for a new number after 9 months.

And when I did, here is what I am told. I need to pay Entry tax seperately. They also have some other registration related costs like address change etc. It is likely to cost me another 2-3% of vehicle cost!

Of course I need to also pay ‘speed money’ to facilitate this tax payment and re-registration! Ironic – in this country an honest tax payer has to pay bribe to pay tax!

All this for a vehicle for which I have already paid all taxes in Hyderabad and have Andhra registration, but Karnataka wanting its pound of flesh as well! Why can’t they just work out a mechanism to transfer the rest of the LTT from AP to Karnataka?

Afterall I bought a good that is mobile, and India is one country? Why not tax me once, instead of taxing me every step of the way?

I refuse to pay the entry tax. I’ll retain the AP registration. That’s not exactly illegal, though RTO demands so. Their regulations state  that within a month of entry we need to pay Life Time Tax, and within a year of Entry  of vehicle it needs to get a Karnataka registration number as well. Atleast couple of High courts have already ruled against such a rule, Mumbai High court being the first one.

It is quite possible for a person to live in two places. Bangalore is border town to two states (Tamilnadu and Andhra). Go some 80km from Bangalore and you are In AP and just about 50km is Tamilnadu!!

So, it is impractical for a citizen to keep changing the Numbers as he moves between these areas for living or work! Law simply can’t insist that one must do so, even if it asks for a tax to be paid for the utilization of roads on a regular basis within the states (Which I have already paid).
So, I’ll stick to my guns and the AP registration!