The owners of contract carriage buses in Mysuru are up in arms against tourist buses bearing vehicle registration codes of Nagaland (NL), Arunachal Pradesh (AR), Odisha (OD), and Daman and Diu (DD) operating “illegally” from the city by reportedly paying very low All India Permit charges.
The Karnataka Taxi Drivers’ Organisation’s Mysuru district unit, which submitted a memorandum to Deputy Commissioner Lakshmikanth Reddy, besides the Police and Transport department officials in Mysuru, said the number of tourist buses with NL, AR, OD, and DD registration codes were not only increasing in Mysuru, but were also luring customers by offering them cheaper fares.
Honorary president of the organisation’s Mysuru district unit Arun Kumar said private tourist buses operating with registration codes from outside the State were actually owned by residents of Mysuru, who were securing the registration from other States by evading the taxes due to the State government.
Operators from Mysuru have their contract carriage buses with a seating capacity of 21, 33, 50 etc. registered in States like Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, Odisha, and Daman and Diu, making use of the very low All India permits. “If we pay ₹1.08 lakh once every three months in Karnataka for the All-India permit for a 33-seater, a vehicle with registration codes of other States would have paid only ₹90,000 for an entire year,” said Mr. Arun.
Though the contract carriages with registration codes of other States are not allowed to pick up passengers from Mysuru, they were booking passengers from the city “illegally” while the Transport Department officials turn a blind eye to the violation, he contended.
While the contract carriage vehicles registered outside the State need not pay to ply tourists and passengers to neighbouring Kerala or Tamil Nadu, the tourist buses with Karnataka’s registration are forced to cough up around ₹4,000 for a week’s visit to Kerala and ₹2,700 for a week’s visit to Tamil Nadu, said secretary Dayanand.
“Earlier only four vehicles with registration codes of other States were operating from Mysuru. Now, there are 12. About 20 more are due to start operating in a few days,” said Mr. Arun. If the authorities do not act against the alleged violation of Transport Department rules, the owners of tourist buses will be forced to park their vehicles in front of the Deputy Commissioner’s office, he said.
He also contended that the fees levied by the Karnataka government was “too high” while urging the authorities to waive the taxes for tourist buses entering Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, and Maharashtra.
Meanwhile, the Karnataka Taxi Drivers’ Organisation also complained against the “self-driving” vehicle operators in the tourist city of Mysuru, who were offering “white-board” four-wheelers to tourists. “The white-board four wheelers need not pay any inter-State tax. But, the yellow-board taxis are forced to cough up entry tax even though they would have paid a hefty fee to the Transport Department every three months,” Mr. Dayanand said.
