BENGALURU: The Transport Department is likely to achieve nearly 90% its set annual revenue target of Rs 6,617 crore for the year 2020-21 as vehicle registrations have gone up due to people switching to private vehicles from public modes on account of Covid-19.
Due to the pandemic, the transport department had revised its forecast of the annual revenue it could earn factoring in the impact of the pandemic. It predicted it would earn Rs 4,900. However, in the past couple of months, vehicle registrations have risen, and the department has surpassed its monthly revenue predictions of Rs 408 crore, making it likely that the department will achieve about 90% of the set revenue target of Rs 6,617 crore. September saw 1,06,039 vehicles registered, earning the department Rs 478 crore and between October 1-7, 5,951 vehicles were registered.
The state government has reportedly been exerting pressure on the transport department as it is a source of high revenue to the state treasury along with the departments of commercial tax, excise, stamps and registration. While there was a dip in tax collection during the lockdown, transport department officials predicted a rise in sales assuming people would switch to using their own vehicles once economic activities resumed. “People are now scared to take public transport.
So, there is an assumption that people will slowly switch to private vehicles. We can only hope sales will improve in the next few months. We achieved 86% of the target last month,” Transport Commissioner N Shivakumar had told TNIE. Additional Commissioner and Secretary of Transport Hemanth Kumar said registrations have picked up since June, when lockdown restrictions began to be eased. “In June, we saw 92,000 registrations, against a target of 1.3 lakh. In July, despite the lockdown, 72,000 vehicles were registered,” he said, adding that the department is expected to earn over Rs 5,000 crore by the end of the fiscal year.