PANJIM: The government has decided not to extend the 50 per cent reduction in road tax, as the scheme applicable for three months on purchase of new vehicles ended on December 31, 2019 giving a major boost to State revenue.
Transport Minister Mauvin Godinho said the entry of BS6 vehicles from April 1, 2020 will offer discounts to its customers and as such, extending the government scheme will ‘not make any sense.’
“I will not extend the scheme because the vehicles in the market are BS-IV which will be upgraded to BS6 from April 1. It is bound that companies selling these vehicles as well as the dealers will offer discounts. Therefore it does not make sense that government also slashes road tax,” he informed reporters on the sidelines of the day-long Legislative Assembly session at Porvorim on Tuesday.
The minister maintained that the scheme gave opportunity to the people to afford buying vehicles while it also increased the revenue by 7 percent. “It was a good move by the government,” he added.
The decision to cut the road tax by 50 percent from October to December 2019 also saved jobs of the people, Godinho said adding, “There would have been unemployment in Goa because half of the outlets would have closed down.”
Figures released by Transport Department indicates that sale of four-wheelers shot up by 81 per cent while two-wheelers saw a 6 per cent rise. The sale of vehicles from October to December 2019 increased to 15,188 from 14,323 vehicles registered during the corresponding period in 2018 whereas the four-wheeler sales increased to 8,264 from 4,559 in the respective period. This upped the revenue by 7 per cent. The government has earned a total of 5281.56 lakh during the three months in 2019, as against 4939.32 in the previous corresponding period. On the revenue front, there was however a drop in the tax collection (-31 percent) on two-wheelers.
