Last Updated on April 4, 2021 at 3:08 pm
Motor Vehicles (Amendments) Act 2019 states that vehicles which are registered in other states but are being used in Jammu and Kashmir for more than one year must be re-registered in Union Territory.
Every vehicle owner is required to pay a 9 per cent fees for remaining years of the registration. Sources said that section 47 of the Motor Vehicles (Amendments) Act 2019 mentions that such vehicles would have to be re-registered in that particular district in which the vehicle has been operating.
Regional Transport Officers and Assistant Regional Transport Officers in many districts have started punishing such vehicles with registration number of other states by imposing fines or even seizing vehicles in some cases. A local person of Kathua said that many people in his region have bought vehicles from neighbouring Punjab and been using them for many years and they have never faced such problems from the government. It has only been a couple of months since when government authorities are pressurizing them. Authorities are saying that they have taken this action according to provisions of MV Act.
One important aspect of this whole matter is that luxury car owners will be highly impacted by implementation of this MV Act. Many luxury companies don’t have any showroom in J&K. As a result, people have to go to other states for buying Sports Utility Vehicles (SUVs). These vehicles have to get registered in that particular state or UT. As this rule gets implemented, people will have to re-register their vehicle in concerned RTOs and get a new registration number. Moreover, people would have to pay a token tax of 9 per cent.
Sources said that these provisions were framed many years before but were never implemented seriously. It was revealed that a vehicle used in the Pulwama terror strike had registration number of another State only then this issue gained momentum among government authorities.
An official said people who don’t re-register their vehicles in Jammu and Kashmir would be fined according to the rules. If caught then the department will re-register only BS4 model vehicles and seize vehicles below BS4 model.
