• RTO conducts crackdown to collect about Rs. 4 crore tax
• Two cars released after collecting Rs. 1.78 crore road tax

Mysuru: Officials from the Regional Transport Office (West) have seized five luxury vehicles for allegedly evading road tax on Sunday. Two Mercedes-Benz, an Audi Q4, a Porsche and a Rolls-Royce were seized for evading road tax, totalling up to Rs. 4 crore.

According to Regional Transport Officer (Mysuru West) C.N. Ramachandra, a special team from the Department of Transport, Bengaluru, along with the RTOs (Mysuru East and West), conducted a special operation on Sunday until 10.30 pm to seize the vehicles.

“We had been monitoring the movements of these vehicles and had sought permission from the head office to conduct the seizure of the vehicle. Only after we received instructions from the head office and the arrival of a team from Bengaluru, we conducted the raids,” he said.

According to RTO officials, all five vehicles, owned by Mysureans, were registered in Puducherry, where the road tax is considerably less compared to other States as it is a Union Territory.

Department of Transport in Karnataka charges 28 percent GST plus 22 percent conveyance charges on the ex-showroom price of the car and for the total amount obtained, 18 percent Road Tax and 11 percent cess is charged at the time of registration for cars priced more than Rs. 20 lakh.

Many of the vehicle owners, to evade paying a huge amount towards road tax and cess charges, get their vehicles registered at Puducherry. The officials said, vehicles registered in other States are permitted to be used in Karnataka for only 11 months; thereafter, the owners will have to pay road tax as per the RTO guidelines and must also re-register their vehicles.

RTO Ramachandra mentioned that out of five seized vehicles, one Mercedes-Benz and a Rolls-Royce were released after the owners paid a total of 1.78 crore tax yesterday.

“We have also released Porsche and Audi Q4 after their owners promised to pay the tax today. Meanwhile, we have retained the other Mercedes-Benz as we had doubts over its registration,” he added.

Bike taxis banned in State

RTO (West) C.N. Ramachandra said the Department would be conducting a crackdown on bike taxis following the Karnataka High Court’s directives to suspend operations.

The ban came into effect yesterday following the end of the 12-week deadline given by the High Court to suspend the operations.

The High Court Division Bench last Friday refused to stay an earlier Single-Judge order suspending bike taxi services in the State. The Division Bench, comprising Acting Chief Justice V. Kameshwar Rao and Justice Sreenivas Harish Kumar, was hearing the appeals filed by Uber India Systems Pvt. Ltd, ANI Technologies Pvt. Ltd (that operates Ola) and Roppen Transportation Services Pvt. Ltd (that operates Rapido), among others.

The High Court Single-Judge Bench had ruled that services like bike taxis cannot operate until the State Government notifies specific rules and guidelines under the Motor Vehicle Act.

Meanwhile, the RTO officials in Bengaluru seized more than 100 two-wheelers, after finding aggregators were flouting the directives of the High Court.