BENGALURU: If you ever wondered as to why so many Puducherry-registered high-end cars and SUVs move around in the city, the Transport Department has made it clear that these vehicles are on roads illegally.
Though the department admits that the number of cases has come down, it also pointed out that the 2016 High Court order of allowing other state vehicles to ply without a no-objection certificate (NOC) for 12 months has also made it difficult for them to catch such violators.“These vehicles get a temporary registration done here in Karnataka, and then get the final registration in Puducherry,” Transport Commissioner N Shivakumar told The New Indian Express.
This is to avoid high road taxes of 20 per cent of the cost of the vehicle in Karnataka, while it is only 7 per cent in Puducherry. TNIE learnt that showroom dealers, agents and RTOs are all part of this racket.
A customer only needs to visit a high-end luxury vehicle showroom in the city and give a hint to the agent that the taxes are too high. As the dealer is in a hurry to sell the vehicle, he gives the customer a different route to buy vehicles priced over Rs 2 crore.
A source from an RTO office in Bengaluru said that temporary registrations are still being given despite strict orders passed against it two years ago. B N Umashankar, additional commissioner of Transport (administration), said, “The RTO Koramangala has issued only one temporary registration but it was after
proper verification.”
In fact, TNIE had access to a telephone conversation between a potential customer and an agent who sells Porsches and Lambhorginis in the city. The agent tells the customer to show a rental address proof for three months. To avoid getting caught by RTO officials, the customer will also need to get a Puducherry
driving licence.
The cost of getting all the documents done and the fee for an agent is between Rs 1 and Rs 1.5 lakh. This may vary from vehicle to vehicle. In this particular telephone conversation, the agent requested Rs 1.3 lakh to register a BMW 8 series vehicle. It is understood that the customer can also avoid GST since the address proof given is of a rental property.
“It is difficult to say by how many cases it has reduced. But with the High Court order, how do we prove that a vehicle is plying on our roads for more than 12 months? No vehicles have been caught in the past two years since the order,” Shivakumar said.