09 January,2017 08:20 AM IST | | Shashank Rao
Amendments made to Motor Vehicle Rules mainly target commercial vehicles, hiking up letter of authority charge from Rs 500 to Rs 15,000; fares could increase once the BC Khatua committee comes out with its fare system
The amendment will severely affect those running commercial vehicles auto rickshaws, black and yellow taxis, mobile aggregators Ola, Uber and fleet cab operators like Meru and Tab Cabs. File Pic
Just before the Road Safety Week, which starts today, the government has kicked up a storm, by hiking fees for procuring and maintaining a licence by amending the Central Motor Vehicle Rules, 1989. The tweaks were made on December 29 but came into effect from January 6. The steep increase mainly targets commercially operating vehicles. Procuring a driver's license has also become significantly expensive.
Sources in the Regional Transport Office (RTO) said that these commercial vehicles operating as mobile aggregators have to get a âletter of authority' from the RTO. This used to cost them Rs 500 which has now been hiked to Rs 15,000. And if the permit holder loses this letter and wants a new one, he will have to pay Rs 7,500 instead of Rs 500.
The targets
The amendment in the Central Motor Vehicle Rules, 1989 has targeted several basic sections which has now severely affected those running commercial vehicles - auto rickshaws, black and yellow taxis, mobile aggregators Ola and Uber and fleet cabs operators Meru, Easy, TabCabs and others. For instance, ever since the boom in the business of mobile aggregators, most of the commercial vehicles with a âT' permit have joined them.
Register with RTO
Apart from this, the fee for RTO registrations for private and commercial vehicles has also been hiked. Earlier, an auto rickshaw would get registered at Rs 200 but it now has to pay Rs 300; light motor vehicles used to pay Rs 300 but will now pay Rs 1,000; the fleet and mobile aggregators registering at Rs 400 but shall now pay Rs 1,000. Passenger buses will be registered for Rs 1,500 instead of Rs 600. Meanwhile, the private vehicle owners too will pay Rs 600 instead of Rs 200. Moreover, losing the registration certificate (RC book) would also prove costlier for people.
As far as the fitness for vehicles goes, while private vehicles need to conduct fitness test and get a certificate after 15 years, the commercial ones have to do it first after two years of purchase and then, annually. This has irked the auto rickshaw and taxi unions and transporters the most.
Stay fit
As per the amendment, fitness certificate for an auto rickshaw will be Rs 400 and Rs 600 for manual and automatic. Earlier, they used to pay flat Rs 200. The cabs and commercial vehicles used to pay Rs 400 flat but now they too will pay Rs 600 for manual clutch-gear vehicle and Rs 1,000 for vehicle having automatic transmission facility.
"These autos, taxis and tourist permit vehicles have to renew their fitness certificate every year. Many drivers and permit holders delay in doing it as there was a marginal penalty to it, but amendment has also increased this penalty amount," said another RTO officer. For the renewal of fitness certificates, it used to be Rs 100 after a fortnight of missing the deadline, which has now become Rs 200 as one time payment and additional Rs 50 per day after expiry of fitness certificate. Similarly, issuing or renewal of all India permit authentication will now cost Rs 10,000 for bus, truck and tourist taxi owners that previously used to cost just Rs 500.
License to hike
The amendment has also increased the fees for learning licence, which will now cost Rs 150 instead of Rs 30. While giving test for a permanent licence, it would be Rs 300 instead of Rs 50. Until now, there was no fee for re-appearing for a driving test after failing it, but now an extra Rs 50 would be levied each time. Adding new class on the licence will cost Rs 500 that used to cost just Rs 200.
Finally renewing a licence will continue to cost Rs 200. Wanting an international driving license will cost Rs 1,000. If someone wants licenses for both two and four wheelers then they have to pay Rs 500 instead of Rs 200. The driving schools, which for long had randomly mushroomed across Mumbai too will have to be careful and cannot get away with simply registering themselves. Issuance or renewal of new license for a driving school will now cost Rs 10,000 instead of Rs 2,500.
Only couple of days ago these unions had a meeting with the four-member team of BC Khatua on coming out with formula for determining fares. This sudden hike in fees could mean that there is the possibility of a fare hike as well.
