Shillong, May 27: Honesty is the best policy but not when it comes to paying your dues to the Meghalaya government. That may be the lesson taken away by the general public after the state cabinet announced yet another amnesty scheme, this time for defaulting commercial vehicle owners.
The cabinet on Wednesday approved a one time settlement scheme offering major relief to commercial vehicle owners by waiving up to 90 per cent of penalties on pending transport-related dues, with Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma saying the move is aimed at protecting local transporters from mounting financial stress.
Under the scheme, the government will exempt 90 per cent of penalties imposed for non-renewal of fitness certificates and 80 per cent of penalties related to Motor Vehicle (MV) tax and goods and passenger tax.
This is common practice for the state government, which last year offered an amnesty to defaulting electricity consumers to settle outstanding bills of Rs 119 crore at a discount. Going back further, 805 taxpayers, some of whom owed the state “hundreds of crores” of rupees, were also given an amnesty in 2020 on their outstanding tax bills.
Addressing reporters after today’s cabinet meeting, Sangma said the government decided to intervene after finding that accumulated penalties, particularly for fitness certificates, had reached “irrational” levels over the years.
He said while the annual fitness certificate fee is around Rs 1,200, the penalty for non-renewal stands at Rs 50 per day, resulting in dues of nearly Rs 18,000 annually for a single vehicle.
“In our basic calculation, we could see that the penalties alone, especially for no fitness certificate, would come to around Rs 900 crore. For MV tax, it is about Rs 21 crore and for goods and passenger tax around Rs 5 crore,” the CM said.
He said many commercial vehicle owners had failed to renew taxes and fitness certificates over periods ranging from three to 20 years due to a combination of poor enforcement, lack of awareness and manpower shortages.
Sangma said most of the affected transporters were local residents who depended on their vehicles for livelihood.
“If we are not able to find a solution to this, it will lead to huge financial stress for our own people and may even halt the transportation system within the state,” he said.
The CM urged truck owners and transporters to take advantage of the one-time settlement scheme and clear their pending dues.
The government expects to collect between Rs 120 crore and Rs 150 crore after implementation of the rebate scheme.
Clarifying that the dues were largely notional penalty figures rather than actual unpaid taxes, Sangma said the penalties had accumulated automatically over many years under central government rules.
“Suppose somebody owned a truck for 15 years without renewing the fitness certificate, the penalties would run into lakhs. Many people were not even aware that the certificate was required,” he said.
Responding to questions on why authorities had failed to recover the dues earlier, Sangma admitted there were enforcement and manpower challenges, adding that similar issues were being faced in other states as well.
He said the government’s priority was to regularise the system going forward and ensure that commercial vehicle owners comply with fitness certificate requirements and tax payments in future.
The Cabinet also approved an amendment to the Meghalaya Forest Authority Act 1991, to allow the authority to utilise funds provided by the state government for its functioning, including meetings and coordination activities between the Forest Department and district councils. According to Sangma, the amendment was administrative in nature and necessary to enable the authority to function effectively.
In another decision, the cabinet approved rules regulating the use and format of name boards on official vehicles. The Transport Department has finalised a list of authorised officials and statutory positions permitted to use the name boards as part of the government’s effort to curb VIP culture.
