Chennai: After a six-month delay, the Tamil Nadu transport department has finally acted on the Centre’s proposal to register vehicles under Bharat (BH) series. The ministry of road transport highways had launched a pan-Indian registration series called BH in August. Vehicles, registered under this scheme, will be provided with special number plates, which are valid across the country.
These vehicle owners need not change registration numbers every time they move to a different state. The scheme was primarily aimed at helping those who frequently get transferred to other states. But TN, Kerala, Karnataka, and few other southern states were hesitant in implementing this fearing tax revenue losses.
Under the present regime, 10% to 15% of a four-wheeler cost (including GST) is collected as road tax by the Tamil Nadu government. But in the proposed BH series, states can earn only 12% of the vehicle cost (excluding GST). This indicated that the state transport department will lose several lakhs of rupees everyday as tax revenue.
In response, the ministry clarified that the BH series will generate 1.25 times more tax for the respective state governments.
Subsequently, the state transport department has decided to accept the proposal but with a few changes, said a senior official from the department.
“TN might collect taxes from these vehicles once in two years instead of a lifetime tax (valid for 15 years). The proposal is pending before the finance department and an announcement is expected to be made later this month,” the official said.
H Harshavardhan, a BH aspirant said that there has been no official word about the scheme guidelines or timeline since October 2021. “The Karnataka government, while launching BH series recently, excluded private employees from enjoying the benefits of the scheme. We expect Tamil Nadu not to follow Karnataka’s footsteps while implementing it,” he said.
