Bearing a brunt of heavy taxation levied by the Haryana Government in its new tax reforms, Chandigarh’s private taxi drivers now refuse to enter Panchkula. Siphoning Panchkula part off from the “Tricity” constituting Chandigarh, Panchkula and Mohali, for lying under the jurisdiction of Haryana state, the issue has been the talk of the town for many.
About the Tax
As per the new tax reforms introduced by the Haryana Government last week, Regional Transport Authority has the right to collect a tax of INR 100 from the private taxi owners and cars having registered numbers of other states entering Haryana borders. Prior to the taxation reform, this tax was monthly and quarterly collected by Excise And Taxation Department by commercial vehicles and the tax amounted to an INR 33 if counted on a per day basis. But, this decision has certainly affected private taxi owners, drivers and companies like Uber and Ola which ferries the passengers daily to-and-fro within tricity, including Panchkula.
Unending Tax Issues
The tax related issues have engulfed many and is still continuing as we read on. The menace has spread to following arenas :
- Increased taxi fares
- Lesser number of taxis to prefer the route
- Disruption in commutation
- Refused number of drives by Uber and Ola
- Incomplete daily targets for taxi drivers
- Huge time wastage in paying tax per entry
- Traffic jams observed during peak hours
- Long queues lined up for the payment
- Revenue loss for owners
- Preferred routes only to Chandigarh and Mohali
Struggles of the Common
Not only increased prices of taxi fares for commoners but making it cumbersome for drivers to complete their targets for the day, the struggles of the common man be it an employee of Uber and Ola, or a daily passenger or the drivers reaching out till the owners, financial woes are unending. To add fuel to the fire, a fine of INR 20,000 is also there for the defaulters. Juggling hard at the tax collection point of RTA in Mansa Devi Complex, the cab drivers prefer not to ferry their customers on the route. The long queues are lined up owing to a collection of the tax on a daily basis.
At least a monthly collection and subsidised rate for the daily commuters via taxis shall be enforced if not doing away with the system is the plea of many.Chandigarh has been going through a lot these days and this news had to top the list of troubles that Chandigarh has to bear. Shelling out bucks from private players of cabbies and commercial vehicles, their pockets are meant to be burnt anyway, either by fuel hike or by taxes levied !!! Isn’t it?
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