Three Regional Transport Offices (RTOs) in Chennai did not collect green taxes from 21,250 old vehicles while renewing the registration certificates (RC), a recent government audit report said.
To discourage owners from using old vehicles, the government levies green taxes which are later supposed to be used for implementing various air pollution control measures.
Currently, commercial vehicles like taxis and autos, which are seven years old or more, should pay 200 to 500 as annual green tax. Similarly, 15-year-old two-wheeler and car owners should pay 500 to 1,000 every five years.
But in Chennai Central(Ayanavaram), Chennai South (Thiruvanmiyur) and Chennai North West (Anna Nagar) RTOs, the owners got their vehicle RCs renewed without paying this amount. This resulted in a revenue loss worth around 1.3 crore in 2020-21, the audit report said.
K Kathirmathiyon, a transportation activist said either officials should have deliberately circumvented the rule by accepting bribes or they were unaware that they should collect this amount before clearing the applications.
“The only way to stop this is to link the RC renewal process with green taxes in the government’s VAHAN portal,” he said, referring to how applicants can proceed with new vehicle registrations only when taxes are paid.
After the audit pointed it out, the state transport department subsequently collected green taxes worth 4.9 lakhand has assured that stringent action is being taken to collect the remaining amount.
