Entry Tax on 'essential' vehicles postponed by fortnight
GOANEWS DESK, PANAJI | 15 April 2013 14:08 IST
Goa government has decided not to charge entry tax, for a fortnight, to the vehicles bringing essential commodities to Goa from Karwar, Sindhudurg and Belgaum.
PWD minister Sudin Dhawalikar informed the Goa Assembly today that the department would work out a monthly pass system at concessional rates for these vehicles.
The issue was raised by Calangute MLA Michael Lobo during Zero Hour.
As these vehicles bring essential commodities like vegetable, fruits, milk etc to Goa, he demanded that the entry tax be reduced for these services.
The transporters have threatened to hike the prices of essential commodities if the entry tax is charged.
Dhawalikar however was of the opinion that the entry tax costly hardly any deal to the transporters.
“We charge only Rs 1000 for a truck carrying one tone (10,000 kilograms) of commodities and only RS 500 for a tempo”, he said.
He in fact read out the list of all the commodities which may get additional charge of hardly one to three paise per kilogram.
Even milk per litre would get additional charge of hardly three paise, he said.
Dhawalikar did not see any reason for such resentment when Karnataka and Maharashtra governments charge huge amount of toll to any traveler in their state.
“Comparatively, this one-time entry tax is negligible”, he said.
The PWD minister also informed the Assembly that the government had earned Rs 17,000 within an hour at all the six entry points.
The government, from today, charges Rs 100 for three-wheelers, Rs 250 for four-wheelers, Rs 500 for tempos etc and Rs 1000 for six-tyre trucks and above.
