Despite lockdown Odisha collected Rs 96 cr motor vehicle revenue in June

Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government collected Rs 96 crore motor vehicle revenue in June 2020. In real term there has been a decline in motor vehicle revenue by 14.8% as the State collected Rs 112.7 crore revenue in June 2019.

In a statement the State Transport Authority (STA) said this is quite encouraging considering the fact that several parts the state are either in lockdown or shutdown almost throughout the quarter.

The State collected Rs 159.8 crore in the quarter April to June 2020 against collection of Rs 384 crore in April-June 2019. There is 58 percent fall in revenue collection for the quarter.

The revenue collection was Rs 28.66 crore in April against Rs 166.2 crore collected in April 2019, thereby a decrease of over 83 percent. The revenue collection was Rs 35 crore in May against Rs 105 crore collected in April 2019, thereby a fall of over 67 percent.

Vehicle sale has picked up in June with sale of 43,000 vehicles despite lockdown in the state due to COVID pandemic. About 29,000 vehicles have been sold till July 20, 2020. During the month of May, 15,000 vehicles were sold and only 2599 vehicles were sold in April. Due to lockdown from March 22, the sale had gone down. On an average about 60,000 vehicles are sold in a month during normal time. In 2019, in the months of April, May, June, 75,000, 66,000 and 64,000 vehicles were sold respectively, the statement added.

There is a loss of revenue from grant of DL/LL services as the test is not conducted. The government has exempted buses from paying the taxes for the first quarter. The enforcement revenue also went down as the RTO staff remained busy in organising transport to migrants, operating the border check posts and assisting administration to enforce lockdown/shutdown.