Permit fee exempted for tourist vehicles

In its bid to streamline the issuance of permits for tourist vehicles and minimise the hassle that tourist vehicle operators face, the road transport ministry has notified issued this notification. Furthermore, the ministry has also made it mandatory for authorities to issue the permits for “All India Tourist Permit” AITP vehicles within seven days from the date of receiving applications.

Tourist vehicles that run on methanol, ethanol or are battery-powered will not be required to pay the fee to renew or obtain new permits from May 1 onwards. The ministry has also made it mandatory for authorities to issue a permit within seven days from the date of application. This has been done so to streamline the process of issuance of permits for tourist vehicles and minimise the hassles faced by tourist vehicle operators.

The ministry also stated that if the transport authority fails to take a decision within the 7-day window, then the permit will be deemed to have been granted.

The recent notification has been perceived to give a big boost to the tourism sector in India. Moreover, another significant change for feasibility now allows permit fees to be paid either annually or quarterly.

So, for an AITP taxi the permit fee is Rs 20,000 but the owner can choose to pay it quarterly at Rs 6000 also. Tourist vehicles that have the capacity to carry 5-9 passengers have an annual permit fee of Rs 30,000 or they can choose to pay it quarterly at a fee of Rs 9,000. On the other hand, buses that can carry 23 passengers have an annual fee of Rs 3 lakh, but the quarterly fee has been fixed at Rs 90,000.

This provision for tourist vehicles with lesser permit fees for lesser capacity vehicles is going to provide considerable financial relief to smaller operators who ply vehicles with less seating capacity.