Assembly clears Bill on road safety tax

HYDERABAD

The State Government would levy a road safety tax on new vehicles, with the Assembly passing an amendment to the Telangana Motor Vehicles Taxation Act. The tax collected would be deposited in a special account and would be spent on road safety measures.

Transport and Backward Classes Welfare Minister Ponnam Prabhakar explained that it was being imposed following the amendments brought in by the Centre to the Motor Vehicles Act. The road safety tax collected would be ₹2,000 for two-wheelers, ₹5,000 for light motor vehicles and ₹10,000 for heavy vehicles, but would not be levied on auto-rickshaws and tractor trolleys.

It was already being implemented in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Gujarat and a few other States on the new vehicles purchased/registered. The amendment would replace quarterly tax on goods/transport vehicles to life tax collected at 7.5% of the vehicle cost. He stated that the State would have automatic driving testing stations as in Delhi soon.

Another bill passed was to clear the way for establishment of two private universities in the State — Amity University at Mamidipalli in Rangareddy district and St. Mary’s Rehabilitation University at Deshmukhi in Yadadri-Bhongir district.

Health Minister C. Damodar Rajanarasimha, on behalf of Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy holding the portfolio of Higher Education too, said that the two universities were being given nod following their compliance of the expert committee report/recommendations and the government did not allot any land to them. He stated that the rehabilitation university would be the first such university in South India to offer courses on treatment/handling of disability and intellectual disorders.

Members P. Harishbabu (BJP), Akbaruddin Owaisi (MIM) and K. Sambasiva Rao (CPI) expressed concern over the increasing privatisation of education in the State. They said 55% of the school-going age children were attending private schools and there were only 25 professional education colleges run by the government against 363 private ones.