BHUBANESWAR: In a significant move to tighten regulatory oversight, the state government has decided to review the procedures followed across regional transport offices (RTOs) for handling statutory services under the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988.
The decision was taken after detection of wide inconsistencies in practices adopted by RTOs, leading to violations of statutory norms and instances of motor vehicle tax evasion.
Sources said the government observed that different districts had evolved their own procedures in the absence of a uniform and standardised system while processing key transactions, including transfer of vehicle ownership, issue of fresh registration certificate (RC), NOCs from other states, change of address in vehicle documents, reassignment of registration numbers and inspection of vehicles for fitness and renewal of RC. This fragmented approach not only compromised legal compliance but also enabled unauthorised or illegal transactions, causing revenue losses to the state exchequer.
Taking serious note of the irregularities, the Commerce and Transport department on Saturday constituted a high-level committee to review all the existing processes and recommend a transparent, uniform and legally compliant mechanism to be followed by all RTOs across the state.
According to the terms of reference set by the department, the committee will examine end-to-end procedures, identify gaps that allow manipulation and suggest corrective measures, standardised, uniform, simple and transparent procedures strictly in conformity with statutory provisions to eliminate unauthorised or illegal cases and prevent loss of revenue.
The five-member panel will recommend ways to recover taxes evaded in detected cases and propose disciplinary action against officials and vehicle owners responsible for such irregularities. The committee will explore options to enhance ‘more visitless’ service delivery by optimising the existing ‘visitless’ transactions already available in the Transport department’s online service ecosystem under the Motor Vehicles law.
It will also review Odisha Public Transport and Integrated Commuter System and Odisha Permit Management System applications used for stage carriage permit issuance and suggest improvements, including algorithmic safeguards or procedural changes to minimise human intervention and prevent revenue leakage due to manipulation by vehicle owners.
The committee, which can co-opt any expert or field officer for data and consultation, has been asked to submit its report to the transport commissioner-cum-chairman of the State Transport Authority within 15 days.
