the goan I network
PANAJI
The sales of four-wheelers jumped by a massive 198 per cent after the State Government reduced the road tax by 50 per cent earlier this month. Thanks to the tax cut, even the sales of two-wheelers shot up by 93 per cent.
Goa Automobile Dealers Association (GADA) did a comparative study of automobiles sales pre-tax cut and post-tax cut to ascertain the growth numbers. Since the notification effecting road tax cut was released around October 17, the association took data from October 18 to 26.
For comparing, it took the data of exact same dates from the previous month, meaning September 18 to 26. In the nine-day duration, the sales of four-wheelers increased to 833 in October compared to a mere 280 in September.
During the same time period, the sales of two-wheelers increased to 1,555 in October compared to 808 in September. As auto sales zoomed, the collections of road tax and GST also increased even though road tax had been halved.
From October 18 to 26, the government earned Rs 4.2 crore road tax, which was 66 per cent more than Rs 2.54 crore collected from September 18 to 26. In the same duration, the collections of GST on auto sales jumped from Rs 5.9 crore in September to Rs 16 crore in October.
Prashant Joshi, President, GADA, said, “The performance of all dealers in Goa has been excellent. The government’s decision on road tax reduction is justified.”
For many months, the auto dealers had been trying to convince the government to reduce the road tax to give a boost to the sector. However, if the sales had not increased, the reduction in road tax would have meant revenue loss to the government.
Now that the auto sales have jumped, even the road tax and GST collections of the government have sharply increased. Earlier, the State Government had reduced road tax by 50 per cent on all auto sales for three months, October to December.
