Tax relief for women transport entrepreneurs in Bihar

The Bihar government has decided to waive off registration fee on commercial vehicles purchased and driven by women. The registration fee is approximately 7% of the vehicle cost.

There is good news for women entrepreneurs planning to take a plunge in the transport business in Bihar.

Women having commercial driving licences can claim tax rebate on three-wheelers and four-wheelers purchased in their names. (Santosh Kumar/HT photo)

The Bihar government has decided to waive off registration fee on commercial vehicles purchased and driven by women.

The registration fee is approximately 7% of the vehicle cost.

State transport minister Chandrika Rai told the Bihar legislative assembly during the debate on the annual budget of his department on Monday that women having commercial driving licences could claim the tax rebate on three and four-wheelers purchased in their names. “The decision is aimed at empowering women entrepreneurs,” Rai added.

DRIVERS’ TRAINING CENTRE

Citing safety as a major concern for the state government, the minister said a state-of-the-art drivers’ training and research institute, built with technical assistance from Maruti Suzuki Limited on a sprawling 23-acre campus in Aurangabad district, would be opened in the next two or three months.

“District magistrates of other districts have been asked to arrange land to open drivers’ training institutes to reduce the number of road accidents,” the minister said, adding that a special fund had been created to study and plan strategy for reducing road accidents.

The number of road accidents had gone up by 15-17% last year, he added.

“The state has to incur about 2-3% economic and social loss in the GDP due to accidents. A number of vehicle fitness centres are also being opened in different districts to bring down the number of accidents,” said Rai.

Earlier, BJP leader Arun Kumar Sinha moved the cut motion, alleging that many initiatives proposed for road safety by the department were yet to take off. The department’s annual budget, amounting to Rs 60 crore, was approved by the assembly after the BJP-led opposition staged a walkout, protesting marginalisation of the health department’s budget despite huge allocation.