Buying luxury cars to be cheaper in Odisha  

Bhubaneswar: High-end cars will get cheaper in Odisha, with the state government deciding to cut tax rates on registration of luxury cars by half.

The Cabinet today decided to amendment the Odisha Motor Vehicle Taxation (OMVT) Act, 1975 to reduce tax on personal vehicles.

The state government proposed to reduce the tax slabs and limit it to 6 per cent, 8 per cent and 10 per cent under Section 15 of the OMVT Act. With this, the tax on luxury vehicles will come down to 10 per cent from existing 20 per cent.

“As per the decision of the Cabinet, car owners will have to pay 6 per cent one-time tax on vehicles costing up to Rs 5 lakh. Similarly, one-time tax of 8 per cent will be levied on cars costing Rs 5 lakh to Rs 10 lakh, 10 per cent tax on cars costing above Rs 10 lakh,” said chief secretary Aditya Prasad Padhi.

At present, the government is collecting 6 per cent, 8 per cent, 10 per cent, 12 per cent and 20 per cent on cars of costing upto Rs 5 lakh, Rs 5-10 lakh, Rs 10-20 lakh, Rs 20-40 lakh and above Rs 40 lakh respectively, Padhi said.

The government took the decision for reducing the tax slab as the revenue collection dipped on registration of personal vehicles.

“Following the enhancement of the tax slabs, the revenue collection has gone down by about 75 per cent. The luxury vehicle owners are going to other states for registration thereby the ultimate aim of government for enhancing the state’s motor vehicle revenue is being defeated,” said Padhi.

The cabinet also approved two rural piped water project of Rs.387.59 crore for providing drinking water in Puri and Ganjam districts.

The two projects have been taken up under one package out of the funds provided under the state sector scheme BASUDHA.

By this project, over 2.9 lakh people of 305 villages of five blocks under the two districts will have access to safe, assured and sustainable supply of drinking water, said Padhi.

Over 60,000 people of 92 villages under Krushnaprasad block of Puri district, over 53,000 people of 55 villages under Ganjam block of Ganjam District, over 1.4lakh people of 126 villages under Kanas block, over 20,000 people of 18 villages under Brahmagiri block and around 15000 people of 14 villages under Satyabadi block of Puri district will be benefited.

The state cabinet has approved the lowest tender of GVPR Engineers Ltd, Hyderabad amounting to Rs.387.59 crore for execution of the above work. The work is targeted for completion within a period of 24 months.

In another significant decision, the Cabinet revised the lease rental of government-owned IT parks. This applies to both core space and incubation centres, bringing modification in the relevant provisions of ICT Policy, 2014, Padhi informed.

This has been decided to encourage IT entrepreneurship and startups in the state, the Chief Secretary added.

“It is decided to reduce the rental charges for core space and incubation space in all designated government-owned IT Towers to Rs 20 per square feet for super built up area,” Padhi said.

The Cabinet also approved seven other proposals in the meeting here presided over by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.