BENGALURU: For all the vehicular traffic that you grunt and curse your way through on city roads everyday, somebody is laughing their way to the bank: the Transport Department.
Records show that the Transport Department’s revenue, mainly from Motor Vehicle Taxes has witnessed a rise from `1,892 crore in 2009-10 to `5,262 crore in 2016-17.
Over the last eight years, the department has exceeded its revenue collection target except in 2013-14. The revenue collection has increased by more than 14% in 2016-17 compared to 2015-16.
The number of vehicles in the state has also increased from 90.43 lakh in 2009-10 to 1.78 crore in 2016-17. A major chunk of the state government’s revenue comes from departments of commercial taxes, stamps and registration, excise and transport.
Transport officials say the rise in registration of vehicles, road permit fees, collection of pending taxes and fines through enforcement drives, stringent checks at border check posts and auction of fancy numbers has resulted in the increase in revenue collection. Karnataka also has the highest road tax in the country.
“The lion’s share of revenue is from Bengaluru, which is home to 68.33 lakh of the 1.78 crore vehicles registered in the state” said a senior transport department official.
However, the surplus revenue doesn’t seem to be used to improve infrastructure of the Transport Department. For instance, the department is yet to have a mobile application for people to register complaints. It is also facing a severe shortage of staff. Of the 2,750 sanctioned posts, 1,141 posts including that of vehicle inspectors have been vacant for the past few years.
Not surprisingly, the expenditure incurred by the department is only 2.35% of the total revenue collection. In 2016-17, its expenditure was `123.72 crore compared to the revenue of `5,262 crore.
Advait Jani, who works with the Institute for Transport Development and Policy (ITDP), an NGO said a cap on registration of new vehicles and imposition of congestion tax will reduce the registration of vehicles. However, Transport Department is unlikely to take such steps as its revenue will be affected.
“If we put a cap on registration of new vehicles, then people will register vehicles from other states and bring it here. It will also affect our revenue”, an official said.