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Buying a car is a very joyous moment for a middle class Indian. Cars in India are heavily taxed and one has to shell out close to 40% of the car value (On Road Price) as Excise Duty, VAT & Hefty Road Tax.
Did You Know?
Motor Vehicle dealers are levying additional charges such as logistic/handling charges from customers which are ”ILLEGAL”. These charges range from Rs 5,000 to Rs 1,00,000 for a basic car to a high-end luxurious car respectively.
1,97,52,580 motor vehicles were sold in India in the year 2014-15 (data available in public domain). Considering an estimate of Rs 5,000 per vehicle as “handling charges” takes us to a staggering amount of Rs 9,876,29,00,000 (Nine thousand eight hundred and seventy-six crores and twenty-nine lakhs only) of illegal/unauthorised money has been collected by the automobile manufacturers and dealers in just a year.
There is a public notice from Transport Department of Delhi which says that many dealers in Delhi are levying additional charges in the name of logistic or handling charges from customers. The Transport department of Delhi has warned that any excess amount charged from a customer, would be in violation of various rules of government and action would be taken against them like withdrawal of trade certificates, cancellation of self-registration powers and/or imposing of penalty. The Motor Vehicle Department of Kerala has in recent times raided many vehicle dealers who are charging this “ILLEGAL” handling charges and have penalized them heavily.
Telangana transport department has issued a circular on 30th January 2016 to all motor vehicle dealers across the state and has asked them not to collect handling/logistics charges. Apart from Delhi, Kerala and Telangana, other states have failed to take action against these Dealers and have been mute spectators to this daytime robbery.
(copy of a notice issued by the government of Telangana quoting the supreme court’s directive)
What Can Be Done To Curb The Issue?
The courts must issue proper directives and run awareness campaigns to inform and aware all the consumers. We have the following requests:
■ To issue similar Public Notice/notifications like Delhi Transport Department to all the dealers in your respective states/Union Territories and publish the same in leading newspapers of the state.
■ Ask Motor Vehicle dealers to give affidavits to the Transport Department that they will not charge any extra amount which is not authorized by the manufacturer.
■ The dealer has to display the affidavit in the premises.
What You Can Do As An Individual?
■ Sign and share the Petition here. More the number of signatures we receive in the petition, higher are the chances of the transport ministry to acknowledge the concern.
■ Spread this information widely. Aware others by widely sharing this information to your friends, family members and colleagues and ask them further to share the information within their circle.
The Logical Indian community thanks and appreciates Mr. Waseem Memon for bringing the matter to our concern. Waseem has been putting consistent efforts since years to improve the fate of road transportation in India and help individuals fight everyday battles with the transport authorities in various ways.
We request to all The Logical Indian Community Members, to kindly check their vehicle invoices and let us know at [email protected] if you are/were charged with any logistics/handling charges.
