GST which is major tax reform after independence will also going to effect the motorists who violates traffic rules. As GST is applicable on e-challan from July 1. Since the beginning of this year, traffic police have already done away with manual challans. Now they use digital mode for slashing challans against traffic rules violation.
Now under GST, there is a transaction fee for online e-challan payments. With the implementation of GST from July 1, the tax component on e-challan has gone up from 15% to 18%.
The citizens who park their motorcycles, scooters and cars at unauthorized parking places will have to pay more. Besides the penalty, motorists have to pay towing charges which will go to the towing operator. If a car is towed away due to unauthorized parking, then the owner of the car have to pay ₹200 to the traffic police and ₹400 as the towing charges. Besides the increment on tax for e-challan, the tax component on the towing charge has also increased by 18%.
The traffic department’s biggest problem is compliance to e-challans. Out of 8 lakh e-challans, only 50,000 have paid their penalty. In most cases, non-compliance is deliberate as sometimes phone numbers of new vehicle owners are not updated in the database, when vehicles change hands. Traffic police have identified 500 repeat offenders against whom more than five challans each are pending.