BENGALURU: Soon, buyers of new vehicles will have to shell out more towards tax as the state government has issued a notification to collect Road Safety Cess. As per the notification, Rs 500 will be collected from those buying two- and three-wheelers while Rs 1,000 will be charged for all other categories of vehicles.
The funds raised from the cess will be utilised for administrative expenses of the Karnataka State Road Transport Authority like conducting road safety awareness programmes as per the Karnataka State Road Safety Authorities Act, 2017. The Act provides for constitution of a Road Safety Authority and establishment of a Road Safety Fund.
“On an average, 3,500 new vehicles hit roads in the state every day, about 2,000 of them in Bengaluru alone. It is expected that collection of cess from newly registered vehicles will not be less than Rs 15 lakh per day, even if the number of registrations come down,” an official said. Sources said that the department will start collecting the newly-introduced cess soon.