The State government will soon impose a green tax on vehicles, barring motorcycles and autorickshaws, as recommended by the Centre, for which the Legislative Assembly passed the AP Motor Vehicles Taxation (Amendment) Bill 2021 on Wednesday.
The tax is intended to discourage people from using vehicles which damage the environment and motivate them to switch to newer and less polluting vehicles. The bottomline is to make the polluters pay for pollution.
Introducing the Bill, Minister for Transport and Information and Public Relations Perni Venkataramaiah said the green tax was intended to save the environment from carbon emissions.
In the case of transport vehicles which completed seven to 10 years from the date of registration, ₹4,000 would be payable as green tax per annum. The amount would be ₹5,000 a year if the vehicle is 10 to 12 years old, and ₹6,000 per annum on vehicles older than 12 years from the date of registration.
Mr. Venkataramaiah said there would be an increase of 1% in tax on new vehicles costing below ₹5 lakh, 3% on vehicles that cost between ₹10 lakh and ₹.20 lakh and 18% luxury vehicles that cost more than ₹20 lakh.