Bengal government resorting to ‘indirect taxation’ of vehicles in north Bengal, says Raju Bista

There needs to be uniformity of law to stop indirect taxation and harassments faced by drivers on a daily basis. 

RAJESH SHARMA, EOI, JAIGAON, DECEMBER 21, 2022: Alleging that the West Bengal government is resorting to “indirect taxation” of motor vehicles and drivers to raise resources, BJP M.P. of Darjeeling has suggested to Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways that the Centre should come up with a ‘One Nation, One Registration, One Transport’ law for all vehicles. 

According to him, there needs to be uniformity of law to stop indirect taxation and harassments faced by drivers on a daily basis. 

Bista said in a statement on Wednesday that the debt burden of West Bengal was increasing daily due to failure of governance. Because of this, the State Government was unable to pay for basic services. 

The group that faced the burden of this extortion the most was the motor vehicle drivers and their owners. Highlighting the problems faced by drivers from the Darjeeling hills, Terai, Dooars and the Sikkim region, he said thousands of people, including youths, were engaged in driving as a profession in this region to cater to the needs of the large number of tourists who visited this region; and for their own livelihood.

Bista said the police in north Bengal were stopping vehicles every 10 to 15minutes. Civic volunteers who were not even entitled to check anything were being used to check documents of vehicles. Drivers were fined under different pretexts. As soon as a vehicle would leave its original jurisdiction, it would be targeted by the traffic police. The vehicle would be stopped, papers would be asked for and drivers fined for one reason or the other. The harassment would continue at every traffic post. 

Drivers and tourists alike would face harassment, bringing a bad reputation to “brand Darjeeling.”

According to him, vehicles were also being compelled to install engine speed governors, costing between Rs 8,000 and Rs15,000, to limit the speed to 80 kms an hour. In a mountainous region, in any case the maximum speed of a vehicle would be 40 kms an hour, making the speed governor redundant. Besides, in the hills vehicles needed the engine to work in full capacity but because of the speed governor the engine might not be able to achieve the required pull and the vehicle might meet with an accident .