Bhubaneswar, July 22 (IANS) The Odisha cabinet on Saturday decided to amend the Odisha Motor Vehicle Taxation Act to reduce tax on personal vehicles, proposing to reduce the tax slabs to three – 6 per cent, 8 per cent and 10 per cent, an official said.
“As per the decision of the Cabinet, car owners will have to pay 6 per cent one-time tax on vehicles costing up to Rs 5 lakh. Similarly, one-time tax of 8 per cent will be levied on cars costing Rs 5 lakh to Rs 10 lakh, 10 per cent tax on cars costing above Rs 10 lakh,” said Chief Secretary Aditya Prasad Padhi.
At present, the government is collecting 6 per cent, 8 per cent, 10 per cent, 12 per cent and 20 per cent on cars of costing up to Rs 5 lakh, Rs 5-10 lakh, Rs 10-20 lakh, Rs 20-40 lakh and above Rs 40 lakh respectively, he said.
The government took the decision for reducing the tax slab as the revenue collection went down on registeration of personal vehicles.
“Following the enhancement of the tax slabs, the revenue collection has gone down by about 75 per cent. The luxury vehicle owners are going to other states for registration thereby the ultimate aim of government for enhancing the state’s motor vehicle revenue is being defeated,” said Padhi.
The cabinet also approved two rural piped water project of Rs.387.59 crore for providing drinking water in Puri and Ganjam districts.
The two projects have been taken up under one package out of the funds provided under the state sector scheme BASUDHA.
By this project, over 2.9 lakh people of 305 villages of five blocks under the two districts will have access to safe, assured and sustainable supply of drinking water, said Padhi.
Over 60,000 people of 92 villages under Krushnaprasad block of Puri district, over 53,000 people of 55 villages under Ganjam block of Ganjam District, over 1.4 lakh people of 126 villages under Kanas block, over 20,000 people of 18 villages under Brahmagiri block and around 15,000 people of 14 villages under Satyabadi block of Puri district will be benefited, he added.
The state cabinet has approved the lowest tender of GVPR Engineers Ltd, Hyderabad amounting to Rs 387.59 crore for execution of the above work. The work is targeted for completion within a period of 24 months.
