Vehicle permit registration, renewal fee hiked by up to 700%

The Maharashtra government has hiked fee for permit registration and renewal of various category of vehicles to as much as over 700 per cent.

As per the notification issued by the home department on Wednesday, the permit fee for various category of vehicles – like metered taxi, non-metered taxi, maxi cab, auto rickshaw, taxi, contract carriage, stage carriage, goods carriage, private service vehicle, tourist cab, national permit etc. – will increase manifold.

For example, tourist cab owners had been paying Rs600 to get the permit and Rs400 to renew it annually. But now, Rs2,000 will have to be paid to get the permit. For the category of tourist vehicles other than tourist cabs, the hike has been the steepest at Rs5,000 from the earlier Rs600 (grant) and Rs400 (renewal).

Similarly, for auto rickshaws and taxis, apart from the usual fees that are being paid, an additional levy has been introduced. While getting the new permit, taxi owners in the Mumbai Metropolitan Regional Transport Authority area (MMRTA) will have to cough up an extra Rs25,000 and those outside MMRTA area will have to pay Rs20,000. For auto rickshaws within MMRTA area, the additional charge has been fixed at Rs15,000 as against Rs10,000 for outside MMRTA jurisdiction.

An amendment has been made to the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, which will now be titled as Maharashtra Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Rules, 2016.