Coming down heavily on owners of imported bikes, the state government has issued guidelines for registration of these bikes in order to curb tax evasion. The owners of imported bikes will now have to submit their Pan card details and customs clearance certificate, which will help in ascertaining the real cost of the bike, to the respective regional transport offices.

The guidelines were issued in the wake of a public interest litigation (PIL) against tax evasion by the owners of imported bikes in the state. According to State Transport Commissioner Deepak Kapoor, the owners of 622 bikes, mostly in Mumbai, Thane and Pune, had evaded tax.

“The state Crime Investigation Department (CID) is now probing the case. But on our part, we have launched a hunt to track these bikes. Till last week, we traced 38 bikes in Mumbai, Thane, Pen Alibaug and Pune and collected tax of Rs 18.65 lakh,” said Kapoor.

Most of the owners of these bikes give fake addresses and evade the registration fees. “We have asked the bike owners to produce the customs clearance certificate issued to them, by which we can ascertain the actual price of the bike,” added Kapoor. Initially, the RTO officials had shown reluctance to abide by these guidelines under the pretext of not understanding the documents cleared by the customs. The officers were then specially trained by the customs officials.

The registration certificate of the bike would also be sent to the owner at their residence in a self-addressed envelope, which will minimise the scope of giving fake addresses. More importantly, the RTOs and the deputy RTOs have been made accountable for registering these bikes. They have to verify the papers and then give permission to the RTO inspector to register the bike.

... contd.