Communications ministry asked to raise motor vehicle charges from July 1

FE Team | Published: June 28, 2007 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00

FE Report
The ministry of communications (MoC) has, allegedly, failed to carry out a government decision to increase taxes, fees and other charges on motor vehicles for the last 22 months, official sources said.
Although it sounds surprising but the reality is that the failure in executing the decision to increase the charges from 15 per cent to 20 per cent by the MoC for almost two years has been causing substantial revenue losses to the government.
The government was forced to revise downward its earning target from the tax and fees realised from motor vehicles by nearly Tk 200 million in the outgoing fiscal from the original target of Tk 3.83 billion
It is now under compulsion to make upward adjustment of the vehicles' charges as it has projected an earning of Tk 4.40 billion in the next fiscal, 20 per cent higher than the revised target of 2006-07.
The Ministry of Finance (MoF), at an inter-ministerial meeting, asked the MoC in August 2005 to implement the decision of increasing motor vehicles tax and other charges.
"But until now the revised rates have not been implementedâ€¦.. depriving the government of a substantial amount of revenue," said a MoF letter.
Through the letter, the concerned wing of the MOF has asked the MoC to start implementing the revised rates from the July 1, the first day of the new fiscal.
The last revision in this regard was made in 2002-2003 fiscal, sources said.
The government collects at least seven types of charges and the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BTRA) is responsible for realising those from the owners and drivers of motor vehicles.
Vehicles' registration charge, road tax, driving licences charge, fitness fee, route-permit charge and label or sticker fee are the main sources of earning.
According to BRTA statistics, the number of registered motor vehicles was 0.93 million in 2006.
Of the total registered vehicles, 14.63 per cent were motor cars, 6.58 per cent jeeps, micro-buses, station wagons, 1.31 per cent taxis, 3.57 per cent buses, 3.71 per cent mini-buses, 6.41 per cent trucks, 12.78 per cent auto-rickshaws and 47.24 per cent motor cycles.