Car buying gets costly in Delhi as one-time parking charges hiked up to 18 times

Buying a new car in the national capital is set to become costlier as the Delhi government said it will hike the mandatory one-time parking fee by as much as 18 times from January 1.

According to an order issued by the state transport department on Friday, the revised one-time parking fee on purchase of every four-wheeler will range from Rs 6,000 to Rs 75,000. Currently, the fee is either Rs 2,000 or Rs 4,000 depending on the vehicle’s cost.

The decision, which was taken on the basis of a proposal put by the three municipal corporations in Delhi, has led to the creation of six categories based on the cost of the vehicle. The parking fee would be determined by the price slab the car comes under.

While at present, there are just two categories — Rs 2,000 for cars up to Rs 4 lakh and Rs 4,000 for cars above Rs 4 lakh — the new order creates six slabs to levy the one-time parking fee.

Those planning to buy a car of up to Rs 4 lakh will have to pay Rs 6,000 from January 1, while cars costing over Rs 4 lakh and up to Rs 8 lakh will have a fee of Rs 10,000. The highest increase in the fee has been made in the segment of cars that are over Rs 40 lakh, which are mostly luxury cars. The fee has in this category has been hiked from Rs 4,000 to Rs 75,000.

This is the first time that the one-time parking fee has been revised ever since it was introduced in the capital in 2004.

The order angered bus and taxi operators as the annual parking fee for different categories of commercial vehicles will rise from the existing Rs 2,500-Rs 4,000 to Rs 10,000-Rs 25,000.

Bus and taxi operators threatened to protest the move if the charges are not rolled back. “All transporters have been paying the one-time parking fee for 22 years. Where has all the money collected so far gone? Not a single parking space has been built for us,” said Shyam Lal Gola, spokesperson of State Transport Auth-ority Operators Ekta Manch.

The MCDs say that the fee is meant to create parking infrastructure in the national capital.

Gola said a delegation of transporters will meet the chief minister and the transport minister on Monday against the hike. “If need be, we will even resort to a strike,” Gola said.

Before being approved by the transport department, a proposal on this was prepared by the South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) which was adopted in the North and East MCDs as well.

While the SDMC welcomed the move saying the hike would help it develop parking facilities, Anumita Roy Chowdhury, head of research and advocacy at Centre for Science and Environment, said the move will only increase the initial cost of ownership of the car and more needs to be done to curtail the number of cars of now.

“But we also need to increase the cost of usage of cars by introducing differential parking rates. Also, the transport department should have notified the Delhi Parking Policy by now which would have addressed all these issues in one go,” she said.

Previously, there have been multiple efforts to increase the one-time parking charges by the MCDs. In 2015, the north corporation floated a similar proposal while the SDMC in 2017 had approved a plan to increase the charge by up to 15% of the value of vehicles. None of these proposals were implemented because civic agencies did not take approval of the urban development department, Delhi government and the lieutenant-governor.