Pune Cantonment Board to abolish vehicle entry tax

Cantonment Board will impose vehicle entry fee instead

The proposal is a renaming exercise as the vehicle entry fee will be the same as the abolished tax. File

The Pune Cantonment Board (PCB) will abolish the Vehicle Entry Tax and impose a vehicle entry fee instead. The fee will be similar to the one imposed by the Khadki Cantonment Board, said PCB President Brigadier Rajiv Sethi. The decision was taken at a meeting of the general body of the PCB on Thursday. The Khadki Cantonment Board has kept the nomenclature as vehicle entry fee, and the PCB also decided to approve the imposition of vehicle entry fee. Levying a fee does not come under the purview of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) and this is a nomenclature change, PCB authorities said.

The vehicle entry tax was withdrawn in the aftermath of implementation of GST in July 2017 and 62 Cantonment Boards complained about the loss of revenue caused. The Defence Ministry then wrote to the Finance Ministry, and a decision was taken to allow the boards to levy the tax again. Vehicle tax is a crucial source of income and according to D N Yadav, CEO of PCB, it provides the board Rs 10.25 crore annually. The proposal is just a renaming exercise and the same rates will prevail, he said.

According to Manish Anand, a member of Khadki Cantonment Board, the tax was abolished mainly to avoid technical complexities. “Road tax is the only tax which can be collected by the RTO — any other tax can be challenged,” he said. Members also pointed out that since the promulgation of GST, all other taxes barring toll have been subsumed and hence, vehicle entry tax can be legally challenged. On the other hand, a fee can pass the legal test of fire, he said. MSEDCL plea to reduce road digging rate for laying underground cables snubbed

The Pune Cantonment Board (PCB) refused to entertain a plea from the Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Limited (MSEDCL) to reduce the rate of cutting roads to lay underground cables. The board had granted permission for laying underground cables in the cantonment area at six locations measuring 4,665 metres. This included excavation of tar road and footpath at an average rate of Rs 2,850 per sqm. But several board members like Vinod Mathurawala and Dilip Giramkar argued against reducing the rate while members Ashok Pawar and others urged that the rate needs to be revised along the lines of those offered by the Pune Municipal Corporation. But the board refused to bring down the rate.

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