Cantonment vehicle entry tax to start in 15 days

The Vehicle Entry tax on commercial vehicles entering the Cantonment area would begin in 15 days, this was told by the CEO Mr.Razak. The toll has been renamed as “LICENSE FEES” to get away from the Supreme courts judgement.

The contract of collection of the tax has been given to Balaji Enterprises of Ahemadnagar and the said toll/tax would be collected from about 6 places like Military Mahadev, Hindalga Ganpati, Pipeline road Ganeshpur, Cattle road, Amba Bhavan, Fort.

The CEO said that they dont get any financial assistance from the state or the central government hence they need to raise money so that they can provide the services.

The fees would be PER DAY.

In the year 2009-10 the Cantonment made a surplus of Rs.3,32,67,867 and even then it states that it needs more money hence charging the License fees.

There are EXEMPTIONS as well and No VET will be levied on the following vehicles :-

(a) Vehicle belonging to Central / State Government.

(b) Vehicles belonging to Cantonment Board or Municipal Corporation

(c) Vehicles carrying people for funeral.

• Ambulance carrying patients.

• State Transport Buses of Maharashtra Government or any other State

Government.

(f) Vehicle deployed on election duty.

(g) Tractors of farmers used solely for agricultural purposes.

(h) Buses carrying school children.

The Cantonment board should advertise and tell exactly how the mechanism of the toll collection will work. As the same has been awarded to a third party they will try to maximize their revenues, but the public should know how much they will need to pay.

The toll fixed for different vehicles are as follows:
Motor bus carrying passengers on hire Rs 20 
Truck for carrying goods Rs 20
Light commercial vehicles  carrying passengers on hire Rs 15 
Three-wheelers/ auto rickshaws/ Tempo for carrying goods Rs 15
Tractor and tailors carrying goods Rs 15
Tempo/ 407 Vehicles carrying passengers Rs.10 

The Auto expo was inaugurated today and the same will be open to public upto February 7, 2012 at the C.P.Ed grounds Club road Belgaum. Shankargouda Patil inaugurated the Auto expo in the presence of other dilatoriness. The exhibition has a display of vehicles both 4 wheelers, two wheelers and also stalls of products related to autos. Then there is the consumer expo part which has the normal range of products which one will find at any such consumer exhibition. The food court was not entirely open at the time of inauguration but nothing new and exciting was visible. There were many stalls of Banks, LIC etc and also related to real estate. In the entire expo we could get an eye on the Yamaha Ray, the Hyundai SantaFe to be of any importance. You had the Maruti Dezire, Beetle, Force SUV and other regular models. Also of note was the Nissan GRT and also some display of vintage cars. There is nothing very great to be excited about. One can also see the race car lakshya made by college students.
There is a entry fee of Rs.10 per head and there were no parking fees taken.

The Cantonment board in January 2012 passed a resolution in its board meeting for the collectrion of toll (entry fees) in the cantonment area.

Last year the Cantonment had announced that from April 1, 2011 all vehicle(commercial) users will have to pay an entry tax or toll, and he said this was done under Section 67 (e) of Cantonments Act-2006.

But for some or the other reason it was not implemented.

Now the board has finally decided to start toll collection for commercial vehicles entering their area.

The toll fixed for different vehicles are as follows:
Private buses Rs 20
Private trucks Rs 20
Mini commercial vehicles Rs 15
Three-wheelers/ autorickshaws Rs 15
Tractor and tailors carrying goods Rs 15
Tempos Rs 10.

Earlier 6 toll collection centers were to be set up which will given on contract and would be set up at Congress Road, Circuit House, Congress Road, Military Vinayak Mandir, Ganeshpur Circle, Benon Smith High School, Sanchayani Circle and Gogte Circle. But now it is heard they will begin with four.

Vehicles belonging to state and central governments, ambulances, state owned transport buses, vehicles deployed on election duty and buses carrying schoolchildren have been exempted.

Can the Cantonment charge such a toll?

This section 67 of the Cantonments Act, 2006 refers to the Charging of fees. And in it sub sec a- mentions license fee on vehicles and animals.

But the notable fact to this act is Section 66 General power of taxation.

Which has a clause which reads “ In addition to the taxes specified in sub- section (1) the Board may, for the purposes of this Act, impose any tax which under any enactment for the time being in force may be imposed in any municipality in the State in which the cantonment is situated”

Now this is very important and the same has been quoted by a court order as well then under the case of Ramgarh Cantonment board Vs State of Jharkhand and others.

In its order in the above case the court said that, Cantonment board cannot levy the tax which cannot be levied by the Municipality. Further it said that, The cantonment board did not have any authority or competence to levy tax on entry of vehicles in the cantonment area under Sec 60 of the Cantonments Act of 1924.

In another case Ajay Goyal vs State Of Uttarakhand And Others on 10 May, 2011 the High court of Uttarakhand observed “In the light of the aforesaid, we are of the opinion that once the power to levy tax on entry of vehicles under Section 128 of the Municipalities Act is withdrawn, the Cantonment Board loses the power to levy tax on entry of vehicles in the cantonment area under Section 60 of the Cantonments Act in as much as the power to levy tax under Section 60 (1) of the Cantonments Act is Dependant upon and coextensive with the corresponding power given in the Municipalities Act.”

The CEO of the Cantonment board Belgaum says that they are imposing the toll as all other cantonments are also imposing the same.

The Auto Expo 2012 will begin tomorrow (February 3) and will continue upto February 7, 2012 at the C.P.Ed grounds Club road Belgaum.

This time the Auto Expo has been clubbed with Food festival and also a Consumer exhibition.

This is the second auto expo being organised by Yash communications in the city.

The expo will also host the National vendor development program in association with MSME and Belgaum small scale industries association to boost and develop small scale industries in the adjoining areas. The scale models of cars will be a added attraction at the expo where one would be able to see all their favorite all time cars in scale models.

The organizers promise to get some new recently launched vehicles for display for the first time. Also the food festival also promises to have some great new taste for your taste buds.   

Senior leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party and chairman of the KLE Society Prabhakar Kore said that he would not leave the BJP and continue to be with the party. He said this at a press meet.

Earlier there were talks after BS Yeddurappa had met NCP ( Nationalist Congress Party) chief Sharad Pawar a few days back that many would join the NCP if BSY did so. Mr.Kore has very good relations with the NCP leader since his days in the Congress when he was a Member of Parliament.

The members of the Rajiv Gandhi brigade today submitted a memorandum to the DC stating that compulsion of helmets in city limits should be removed as the incidents of chain snatching, attack and assault by unidentified persons will increase.

The memorandum says good roads can prevent accidents and not helmets.

Also police should strictly not allow the happening of drag races by the youth in Tilakwadi, Bauxite road,Sahaydri Nagar etc.

Helmets are needed on highway and not in the city limits.

Abhay Gohil, retired judge of the Madhya Pradesh High Court, has been appointed a one-man commission of inquiry to look into the allegation that H. Maheshappa, Vice-Chancellor of Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU), misled a search committee and the Governor’s office regarding his academic qualifications and research background before he was selected to head the VTU. The report has to be submitted within 3 months.

Dr. Maheshappa became VC from July 2, 2010 and a writ petition which was filed against Dr. Maheshappa in the Karnataka High Court recently alleging that he had obtained the position of Vice-Chancellor by falsely claiming that he passed BE (Mechanical Engineering) in first class when he had actually passed in second class.

One of the oldest club in the city has been the talk of the town recently when they decided to raise the height of a boundary wall by which their privacy could be maintained.

The cantonment raised objections on raising the wall as many allege that the gymkhana is involved in serving liquor to it members without any permission.

File Photo

The cantonment lease of the same land is over in 2002 but the club was allowed to continue to work as they were facilitating and encouraging sports. But after complaints, the CEO of Cantonment has now decided to hand over the land to the Defense estate officer.

Once this is done the Union Gymkhana would be under the Defence and all the politics and irregularities would come to an end.

Liquor cannot be served there but even then it is served and now the point of raising the height of the wall was being primarily being done to maintain closed privacy to its members to which the Cantonment has opposed.

The Director-General of Police, Shankar Bidari, today announced a reward of Rs. 5 lakhs to the Belgaum district police for their performance in 2011. The DGP was here to inaugurate regional forensic laboratory in Ramtirth Nagar.

In 2011 a sum of 15.51 crores were recovered by the police which was robbed on various occasions.

Another 15 CCTV cameras will be installed to monitor the flow of traffic. The DGP also inspected the various vehicles recovered and also handed over the valuables to their respective owners.

Regional forensic laboratory in Ramtirth Nagar

Registration for Aadhaar cards being issued by Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) will come to a halt in the State on February 12.

From February 12, 2012 the registration for Aadhaar cards issued by Unique Identification Authority of India will come to a halt.

Deputy commissioners have been told to stop the enrollment and ensure that proper exit and closure procedures were followed and evaluators were present until the last day and also see that the data collected is stored safely.

Further work likely to be done by an agency to be designated by Centre

The project, which is caught in a bitter turf war between the Home Ministry and the Union Planning Commission, had only been given permission to enrol 200 million citizens and by mid February it is set to cross the 200 million mark.

Registration in Belgaum district has been only 30%. only 7.5 lakhs people of the 42 lakh people have registered for the Aadhaar card.

There were many complaints of non payment of wages to the employees involved in the Aadhar card.