Bangalore: Karnataka has recently been in the news for its drive to localize registrations of Vehicles registered outside the state, but plying within for more than 30 days. RTO officials in the city have raised slightly more than Rs 20 crore in taxes and penalty amounts by booking cases against 5,298 outside state vehicles from March to September this year. Officials have also seized 1,181 vehicles at various locations, including tech parks.

Kerala state vehilces, especially have come under the radar as they transit in and out of the state. Chandy, the kerala CM, recieved a written plea from Waseem Memon, to take up the subject with the Karnataka Government whilst he was on a visit to bangalore on Sunday. He acted swiftly

The Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, who had already written to his state counterpart Siddaramaiah about the alleged harassment of Kerala-registered vehicles in the state, on Monday sent his Transport Commissioner R Sreelekha to meet her counterpart in Bangalore as well as state Transport Minister Ramalinga Reddy.

Speaking to a Bangalore Daily, Chandy said,”Rules in Karnataka state that whoever uses the vehicle for over 30 days has to pay lifetime tax there. Sadly, some are harassing people visiting the city. There are reports of people being told to pay lifetime tax while on a day’s visit to the state with family members. Moreover, paying lifetime tax is too much of a burden on vehicle owners. There is no option for them to pay the tax for one or two years, or till the time they stay there. And getting back their money is not so easy when they want to leave the city. I have already taken up the matter with the Karnataka government. The Transport Commissioner of Kerala had a meeting with Karnataka officials and the Transport Minister on Monday. I was told that there will not be any harassment of people visiting the city from our state”.

It is learnt that Transport Minister Ramalinga Reddy clarified to  his counterpart at Monday’s meeting that Karnataka’s crackdown against non-KA vehicles was primarily targeted against those who buy high-end vehicles from Puducherry without paying taxes and ply them on Bangalore roads.

Apparently he assured  Sreelekha that Regional Transport Officers (RTOs) in the city will not ask vehicle owners from Kerala to pay the lifetime tax if their stay here is only for a brief period of less than 30 days.

According to the Transport commissioner Ramegowda, they also informed their counterparts from kerala that the vehicle owner will be refunded his lifetime tax in the range of 25% to 95%, depending upon the length of his stay when he leaves the city.

It is learnt that in many cases, the employee id and the car documents are siezed and returned only after the necessary taxes are paid. This despite, the occupants describing their antecedents and the reasons for their visit to the city.
 
An online protest campaign was started against the movement and it has reached the supreme court.