Automobile industry body SIAM expresses concern over proposed increase in registration charges

New Delhi: Automobile industry body SIAM on Wednesday expressed concern over the proposed hefty increase in registration charges of new vehicles. As per the recent draft notification issued by Ministry of Road Transport & Highways, registration charges of new vehicles would go up by 10-20 times depending upon the vehicle category from the present level. [caption id=“attachment_901843” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. Reuters.[/caption] As per the notification, new medium goods or passenger vehicles are proposed to attract Rs 20,000 registration fee instead of current Rs 1,000. Similarly, registration of a new truck or a bus would attract a fee of Rs 20,000 in place of Rs 1,500. Likewise, the registration fee of new two-wheeler is proposed to be hiked to Rs 1,000 in place of Rs 50 currently. Besides, the notification proposes to hike the registration fee of the new car to Rs 5,000 up from Rs 600 at present. “Such increase in the registration charges of new vehicles would further aggravate the market condition negatively,” SIAM President Rajan Wadhera said in a statement. Currently, the automobile industry is going through an unprecedented downturn as sales of new vehicles have plummeted significantly over the last several months. SIAM said instead of hiking registration charges for new vehicles, the government should first look at implementing various measures as suggested by it to bring back growth in the automotive industry.