Jan. 25: The state transport department is losing a hefty amount of revenue because of a large number of car owners of the city register their vehicles in neighbouring state of Meghalaya.

An official source in the district transport office, Kamrup, said it has come to their notice that many people, who are residents of Guwahati, have registered their personal vehicles in Meghalaya in order to evade taxes. They give bogus resident address of the neighbouring state while registering their cars to cut down on the amount of tax.

“A section of city residents prefers to register their vehicles in Meghalaya instead of in Guwahati. This is mainly because during the registration of personal vehicles, the state government collects one-time road tax for a period of 15 years while in Meghalaya the tax is realised only for 10 years,” the source said.

Moreover, there is a difference in the rate of taxation in the two neighbouring states, which allure city residents to register their vehicles in Meghalaya.

“The law for operation for all motor vehicles in India fall under the Motor Vehicles Act (MVA). However, there are state-wise variations in the amount of road tax payable during registration of new vehicles because the state governments are empowered to frame the state motor vehicle rules to suit local conditions of the particular state,” the officer said.

The state transport department is unable to provide any official figure of the amount of road tax it is losing because of the residents of the city registering their vehicles outside the state.

“We do not have the exact figure of such vehicles in the city. But one can easily spot vehicles which have registration numbers of different places of Meghalaya like state capital Shillong and Ri Bhoi district plying on the city roads,” the official said.

The enforcement wing of the district transport office (DTO), Kamrup, will launch a special drive against owners of vehicles, which are registered outside Assam but are plying in the city for more than one year without re-registering here.

“The DTO is also likely to take help from the city police department to conduct the drive,” he said.

During the drive they will also cross verify whether the owner of the car is a resident of Meghalaya or Assam.

Though the transport office is gearing up for the drive, scepticism is also running high.

The plan of the transport office to check vehicles registered outside the state has raised a question whether it will be practical to stop and verify every vehicle in a crowded city like Guwahati.

A few months ago the state transport department had written to their Meghalaya counterparts highlighting this problem.

“The Meghalaya transport department was requested to verify the address proof of the applicant so as to ensure that the residents of Guwahati cannot register their vehicles in Meghalaya to evade taxes,” the official said.