Vehicles whose owners have not cleared taxes, penalties and other statutory payments, including fines and e-challans, will not be allowed to undergo the mandatory auto emission test for the pollution-under-control certificate, the state government has decided.
In a recent notification, the transport department has said that all auto emission testing centres (AETCs) have been directed to issue the certificate only to vehicles that have no dues.
“The AETCs shall be liable to be penalised if found to be violating conditions imposed under certain provisions under (the) Central Motor Vehicles Rules, 1989,” the notification states.
In the scrapped system, the transport department had a mechanism to ensure that vehicles with road tax dues were barred from undergoing the fitness test.
But the other three payments — for pollution test, insurance and fitness test — were not linked to the process.
Senior officials in the department said there were many commercial vehicles whose owners might have paid for the insurance and the pollution test but defaulted on the road tax and the fitness test fee.
“We have now connected all the auto emission testing centres to the Vahan portal through a software developed by the National Informatics Centre. Pollution testing centres will check whether a vehicle has any dues, including fines, by entering the registration number on the portal. The vehicle will be allowed to take the test only if no dues are listed against it on Vahan,” said a transport department official.
The decision was arrived at after it appeared that several commercial vehicles, including buses, taxis and autorickshaws, were plying with a valid pollution-under-control certificate but without paying the fee for the fitness test, finance department officials said.
According to records with the regional transport offices, over 2,000 buses plying in and around Kolkata till last year did not have a fitness certificate. Which means they were unfit for roads.
The records, prepared by the regional transport offices in Behala, Kasba, Beltala and Salt Lake, also reveal that 6,776 taxis and 2,578 autos were plying without a fitness certificate till last year.
“The list of defaulters in regard to the fitness test increases by the year. In 2020-21, the fitness test fee dues totalled Rs 16.71 crore. It was around Rs 43 crore till March 31 this year,” a transport department official said.
The government has also instructed the pollution testing centres to ensure that vehicles are actually tested before they are issued a certificate.
The aim is to stop the practice among some owners of collecting the certificate without getting the vehicles tested.
Some bus owners said it was not always in their hands to clear dues.
“What will owners do if their cases are pending in court?” asked Rahul Chatterjee, general secretary of the All Bengal Bus Minibus Samannay Samity.