Pool car owners in Calcutta have requested the state government to waive their taxes, including road tax, because they have been out of operation for almost seven months as schools are shut and they don’t have money to pay.
There are close to 2,500 car pool operators in and around Calcutta. Each ferry close to 20 children every day.
The quarterly road tax for pool car owners works out to around Rs 4,000. The fitness test costs around Rs 1,500 but owners end up paying a little more than double the amount to touts, several pool car owners said.
All pool car operators need to have a valid permit though there are hundreds who have been ferrying schoolchildren without one. The permit fee — to travel across various zones while ferrying schoolchildren in the city — ranges between Rs 14,000 and Rs 15,000 for five years.
“Even if you set aside the permit fees, a pool car owner on average will have a pending tax of around Rs 8,000 to Rs 10,000, including penalty for late payments,” Anjan Mukherjee of Bengal Carpool Welfare Association said. “None of us is in a position to pay this sum after remaining out of operation for nearly seven months.
Many owners have started selling vegetables and fruits to look after their families. How will we survive?”
In August, the state government had waived taxes of private buses and mini-buses. Even the annual permit fee was waived bringing a relief of around Rs 5,000 for every vehicle. Pool cars, though, were not part of the scheme.
“We have been rendering essential service by carrying schoolchildren. So, why will pool car owners be deprived?” asked Arupam Dutta of Pool Car Owners Welfare Association.
“Schools have been closed since end-March and there is no clarity when they will reopen. What happens to this huge number of operators who have no other alternative means of sustenance?”
Several pool car owners said they had earlier requested guardians to pay 50 per cent of the fees as that would help them stay afloat.
“Even if some parents are capable of paying half the amount, they have not responded to our appeal so far. So, we have been left in the lurch because our earnings have dried up,” Mukherjee said.
What has made matters more difficult is financers looking for their share of the dues from those who took vehicles on loan. Many pool car owners said they had been receiving letters from banks and other institutions seeking payment of monthly dues.
“The Non-Banking Financial Companies have been particularly hard about recovering their dues. Some send their representatives to the garages where the vehicles have been kept,” Dutta said. “Most of us have told them that we are not in a position to pay.”