Tourist vehicles running on battery (electric), ethanol and methanol won’t need to pay the fee for obtaining and renewal of permits from 1 May.
It has been made mandatory for the state transport authorities concerned to issue the permits for “All India Tourist Permit (AITP)” vehicles within seven days from the date of receiving applications.
The Road Transport Ministry has notified these major changes, in its bid to streamline the issuance of permits for tourist vehicles and minimise hassles that tourist vehicle operators face.
In the notification, the ministry said, “If no decision is taken by the transport authority within seven days of receipt of the application, the permit shall be deemed to have been granted and generated through electronic system.”
Industry players said the modified rules will give a big boost to the tourism sector in India by streamlining and simplifying the permit regime for tourist vehicles.
One of the big changes has been made in the permit fee that the tourist vehicles need to pay, either annually or quarterly. For example, an AITP taxi can opt to pay Rs 20,000 annually or Rs 6,000 quarterly.
Similarly, a tourist vehicle having capacity to carry 5-9 passengers can either pay the annual charge of Rs 30,000 or the quarterly fee of Rs 9,000.
In the case of buses that have capacity to carry more than 23 passengers, the annual fee is Rs 3 lakh and quarterly fee has been fixed at Rs 90,000.
The provision of more categories of tourist vehicles, with lesser permit fees for lesser capacity vehicles is expected to provide considerable financial relief to smaller operators, having vehicles with less seating capacity as they will now be required to pay lower fees commensurate with the seating capacity of their vehicles.