Pilgrims from other States visiting Kerala during the 41-day Mandalavilakku pilgrimage season will have to shell out more money if they opt for other-State registered tourist buses with all-India permits for their travel.
Stage carriages with all-India permits will have to pay quarterly home tax in Kerala, which would come to around ₹4,000 for a sleeper seat, ₹3,000 for a push-back seat and ₹2,250 for an ordinary seat.
A good number of contract carriages in Kerala too have been registered in States like Nagaland or Odisha due to the high tax structures prevailing in the State. Of these buses, those with all-India permit will also find it difficult to bring pilgrims or passengers to the State if they do not pay the quarterly home tax in Kerala.
Recently, a tourist bus with all-India permit was slapped a tax of ₹1.07 lakh by the authorities here on its trip to Munnar from Gujarat.
From November 1
A good number of contract carriages in this category are ending their passenger operations at border check-posts in order to avoid the quarterly home tax introduced by the State government on November 1.
A senior Motor Vehicles department official told The Hindu that though there would be a large pilgrim turnout during the annual pilgrimage to Sabarimala, the number of other-State registered all-India permit vehicles would be relatively fewer.
However, normal contract carriages registered in other States can conduct trips to Kerala by taking special permits.
Kerala gets a share of only ₹80 lakh to ₹1 crore as tax share a month from the Centre. The imposition of home tax is a means to mop up additional revenue for the State. In the case of Tamil Nadu, there is an inter-State agreement between Kerala and Tamil Nadu, while Karnataka is yet to sign a reciprocal agreement with the State. Further, these States have been collecting home tax from all-India permit stage carriages from Kerala, although their rate is competitively lower.
A contract carriage from Kerala will have to spend approximately ₹6 lakh for registration in the State whereas it can be done for less than ₹1 lakh if the operator opts for offshore registration. A stage carriage will have to pay around ₹3 lakh to take an all-India permit and a share of this will be given to Kerala by the Centre.
Unlike other States which would get a lot of entry tax from neighbouring States due to their geographical advantages, the prospects of Kerala getting a higher share were low as it lay on the southern tip, said officials.
