The transport department has identified 2,357 vehicles in Kerala which have illegally paid tax in Puducherry. Thiruvananthapuram: The Kerala government has threatened to seize the vehicles from owners who have evaded road taxes in the state by fraudulently claiming to be residents of low-tax regimes such as Puducherry.
Presenting the state budget in the assembly on Friday, finance minister T M Thomas Isaac said that the government would give vehicle owners in the state time until April 30 to pay tax and avoid punitive action.
The transport department has identified 2,357 vehicles in Kerala which have illegally paid tax in Puducherry. Most of them are in the Kozhikode region - 962 vehicles. The central zone has 948 such vehicles and the Thrissur zone 267. The south zone has 180.
Isaac said that the government has introduced an amnesty scheme for vehicle owners who chose not to own up their mistakes for fear of legal setbacks. The government expects to earn about Rs 100 crore from the amnesty scheme.
The transport department launched a crackdown on tax evaders after an official check found that many people from Kerala, including Suresh Gopi MP and actors Amala Paul and Fahadh Faasil, have got their vehicles registered in Puducherry to cash in on the low tax structure in the Union territory.
The department has set up a special office in Ernakulam to uncover the racket. The officials have found papers of about 1,500 Puducherry-registered vehicles to be fake. The tax evasion has cost the government Rs 300 crore in revenue.
Gopi, Paul and Faasil were arrested by the crime branch and later let out on bail. Faasil later paid tax of Rs 17.68 lakh on his car. As many as 88 vehicles have changed their registration from Puducherry to Kerala since November thanks to the crackdown.
The government has received about Rs 9 crore from the drive.
The department has also come down heavily on automobile dealers who facilitated the tax evasion.
Read: Kerala Budegt In-depth
