With the Union Budget sparing only small cars and increasing duty on mid-segment and sedan cars, the pace of registration of new vehicles seems to be accelerating because of factors such as the duty hike coming into effect after a week, closing of the fiscal year and auspicious day for registration.
On the new moon day (i.e., Ammavasai day ) on Thursday, there was hectic activity at the Regional Transport Offices (RTOs) in the city with more people wanting to register their vehicles. The staff at the Regional Transport Offices had to bear a heavy workload on that day.
Transport Department officials said ever since the Union Budget was presented, people were expediting their plans to own a vehicle.
Normally, when the calendar year closes, there is reluctance to register a vehicle, as they want their vehicles to be registered after a month or so.
This helps them to ensure a better re-sale value when they want to sell the vehicles.
But, the hike in duty for mid-segment and sedan cars resulted in buyers and prospective buyers gearing up to complete the registration before the beginning of the next fiscal year.
The three RTO offices, namely Coimbatore South, Central and North, together registered more than 180 cars and more than 440 two-wheelers resulting in the total number of new vehicle registrations crossing 600.
The three RTOs used to register 350 to 450 vehicles a day on an average and the maximum would be 400. But, in the last few days, the number of registration is crossing 400.
Very rarely, new vehicle registrations used to cross the 600 or 700 mark, officials said. This resulted in heavy work load at RTOs and rush in temples because of vehicles lining up for poojas.
Long queue
There were long queue of vehicles at temples, especially in front of Eachanari Vinayakar temple, on Thursday.
Coimbatore City has more than 4.7 lakh vehicles, including transport and non-transport vehicles, registered with Coimbatore South, North and Central Regional Transport offices, in addition to the vehicles registered in Tirupur, Mettuppalayam, Pollachi and other motor vehicle unit offices in and around the district plying on the city roads.
