BALURGHAT: The Regional Transport Office (RTO) of South Dinajpur district has taken up an initiative to recover pending tax of about Rs 5 crore from the vehicles as per instruction of the concerned state Transport department.
Sujoy Sadhu, RTO of South Dinajpur, said: “It is true that following the instruction of the state Transport department, we have taken up an initiative to recover the pending tax which is more than Rs 5 crore from the vehicles. Fines are waived on payment of dues within a specified period. In the last 15 days, Rs 25 lakh have been collected so far. We have initiated several plans to collect the remaining dues.”
According to Sadhu, the amount of pending dues from almost 20,000 vehicles in South Dinajpur district, including transport and non-transport, is Rs 5 crore.
“This includes vehicle fitness, permit, road tax and others. 800 vehicles have fitness failure. Besides, 300 permits have failed. We are active in collecting these dues. A notice is being sent to the car owners after extracting the data to recover these dues. Additional cash counters have been opened. Leaflets and banners are being hung in cars. We have conducted several meetings with the car owners, transport association and others who are associated with the transportation,” Sadhu stated. Sadhu said that waiving the fine to collect the dues has been initiated as per the instructions of the state government.
“Those who have not paid the tax till December 31, if they pay it by February 29, the total fine will be waived. The benefit of this can be taken by the owners of both transport and non-transport parties. Besides, in case of permit and CF, if the dues are deposited by January 31, the 100 per cent fine will be waived. If the car owners can deposit the dues by February 29, it will be 80 per cent waived. The transport owner can take the benefit of this,” he said. He said that as a result of a recent meeting with bus, lorry and other vehicle associations, there is an increase in the number of renewals of fitness fail cars compared to the previous years.