School buses, cabs don't need to pay tax at Delhi-NCR borders: States sign agreement

The agreement between the Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh governments provides for exemption in taxes, including road taxes, to buses and other vehicles of educational institutions.

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The governments of Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh have signed an agreement for single-point taxation for mass public transportation vehicles of state corporations in order to ensure seamless movement of passenger vehicles in the National Capital Region, according to the Union Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry.

The agreement also provides for exemption in taxes, including road taxes, to buses and other vehicles of educational institutions. The ministry notified that the NCR states have agreed to forego such revenues in the larger public interest of a cleaner NCR.

"Such revenue loss is estimated to be around Rs 100 crore annually. Hence this new Combined RCTA for Stage and Contract Carriages in NCR heralds a higher level of inter-state cooperation under the leadership of NCR Planning Board," the statement added.

The agreement, Combined Reciprocal Common Transport Agreements (CRCTA), has come into force with immediate effect, and all educational institution vehicles and all stage carriage buses of state transport undertakings of NCR participating states will be covered under this agreement, the ministry added.

The agreement provides for countersigning of permits and licenses for motor cabs, taxis, auto-rickshaws registered in NCR for seamless movement, the ministry said in a statement.

The agreement also provides single-point taxation for mass public transport vehicles of state transport undertaking inter-city buses to ease traffic congestion and reduce air pollution, it added.

According to the agreement, all permits and licenses, including temporary ones, shall be issued only on Vaahan software, as updated from time to time.

The operational validity of stage carriage vehicles as well as contract carriage vehicles has been limited to 10 years for diesel vehicles and 15 years for petrol and CNG vehicles till any further directions are issued in this regard.

However, the ministry clarified that directions of the Supreme Court, National Green Tribunal (NGT) and the Centre, as applicable, will have "overriding effects on these provisions".

All public service vehicles except those specifically exempted by the ministry shall be mandatorily fitted with a vehicle location tracking device (VLTD) and one or more emergency buttons, the ministry noted.

The Combined RCTA for Stage and Contract Carriages for Passenger Vehicles in NCR builds on the earlier separate RCTAs for these two categories and takes it further to facilitate ease of seamless passenger transport in NCR.

The new agreement provides for single-point taxation to state-owned transport bodies wherein road tax/passenger tax, etc. Shall be payable by them only in one NCR state and exempt from such taxes/fees in the other NCR states.

All the NCR states have agreed on this with a view to nudging passenger shift from private to public transport to reduce NCR's pollution.

The ministry said that NCR states will take the initiative to computerise the database of drivers, vehicle registration and other related information in the NCR districts on a priority basis.

States should also endeavour to implement the usage of RFID, speed control devices, fast tag, trauma Care, single-window tax collection, bar-coding of drivers' fingerprints and GPS vehicle tracking system in a phased manner.

With inputs from PTI