Proposal to impose 10% tax on e-vehicles dropped

Belagavi: The government on Wednesday withdrew its proposal to impose 10% road tax on electric vehicles priced above Rs 20 lakh as members of the Legislative Assembly opposed the move across party lines, saying it would not only impact buyers. There will be a burden, but producers will also be discouraged.
Launching amendments to the Karnataka Motor Vehicle Taxation Act, Transport Minister Ramalinga Reddy said the tax was introduced to compensate for the revenue loss caused by the government canceling its decision to collect lifetime tax from certain categories of commercial and passenger vehicles. Have proposed.

But BJP’s CN Ashwath Narayan said the cost of electric vehicles is already high and the new tax will only burden vehicle buyers. “At a time when governments around the world are promoting e-vehicles due to environmental concerns, imposing a tax will defeat the purpose,” he said.
When senior Congressman RV Deshpande also urged the government to drop the proposal, Reddy had a brief discussion with Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Industries Minister MB Patil and withdrew the proposal.
The Assembly also passed the Bruhat Bengaluru Metropolitan Municipality and Other Laws (Amendment) Bill, which seeks to save the civic body from repaying Rs 1,712 crore to developers from whom it had collected additional building planning fees and cess since 2015.
Other bills passed include: Karnataka Public Examinations (Measures for the Prevention of Corruption and Unfair Means in Recruitment) Bill to curb unfair practices in public examinations, Karnataka High Court (Amendment) Bill and Karnataka Civil Courts (Amendment) Bill. Bill which seeks to reduce the burden of pending cases on the High Court, and to remove section 7-D Karnataka Scheduled Caste Sub-allocation-Tribal Sub-allocation (Planning, Allocation and Utilization of Financial Resources (Amendment) The Bill which allows the deliberate consideration of current) expenditure.