Union Minister Baalu calls for uniform road tax

New Delhi, Sept 23: Union Road Transport and Highways Minister T R Baalu has made a strong pitch for a uniform road tax structure in the country and suggested that the National Road Safety Council and the Transport Development Council should deliberate upon evolving a mechanism for it.

''A mechanism can be devised under the Union Ministry of Shipping, Road Transport and Highways where policy makers of the State Transport Departments may work together to bring in uniform tax structure,'' Mr Baalu said while addressing the 9th National Road Safety Council and the 31st Transport Development Council meetings in Shimla yesterday.

Expressing concern over the spiralling road accidents, he said the Centre and the state governments as well as the institutions responsible for administering the road regulations, should play a very active role in spreading awareness in road safety. ''There is a need to change our road culture and imbibe road discipline where we respect the right of other road users,'' he said.

Mr Baalu said his ministry accorded priority to putting in place a system that would ensure timely help to the victims of road accidents.

He said his ministry had held consultations with the ministries of Union Health and Family Welfare and Telecommunications, besides Department of Economic Affairs and the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) wherein it was decided that the Ministry of Health would identify hospitals located around National Highways and prepare a scheme for their upgradation during the Eleventh Five-Year Plan.

Referring to the congestion on roads, the minister said the States should take adequate measures to bolster public transport by rationalising tax structure which presently favours personal vehicles rather than public transport.

He also called upon the state governments to evolve methods where minimum inconvenience is caused to the customer coming to the Transport Department.

''The system should be geared up towards redressing the grievances, especially in the case of transfer of vehicles from one state to another and non-refund of one-time road tax paid,'' he added.

Mr Baalu also pointed out that due to multiplicity of checks, vehicles are detained at various check posts while moving from one state to another, thereby adversely affecting the productivity of commercial vehicles. ''It is imperative that states should make all efforts to provide barrier-free movement to the commercial vehicles.'' Minister of State for Shipping, Road Transport and Highways K H Muniyappa urged the states to effectively enforce the regulations governing the weight carried by trucks and lorries, saying this was extremely important in ensuring road safety and road quality.

He suggested that in hilly areas of Himachal Pradesh, Uttaranchal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, North-east and other States, efforts should be made to make loop roads wherein one road is used for travelling from one direction to other and the other route is used for the return journey as it would be extremely difficult to build four-lane roads there.

Mr Muniyappa also suggested construction of concrete roads in hilly regions since the cement roads had a much longer life-span than the bituminous roads.

For enhancing passenger safety in buses, he said a draft Bus Body Code had been evolved and an exercise was under way to introduce a system of accreditation to bus body-builders to ensure that such vehicles conformed to minimum safety standards.

The Transport Development Council has on its agenda issues like overloading, multiplicity of checking on National Highways, national data base for driving licences and registration certificates, promotion of public transport system, mechanical fitness of vehicles and pollution control.

The National Road Safety Council agenda includes removal of encroachments, implementation of Control of National Highways and strengthening institutional mechanism in states and highways patrol.

The two bodies are meeting together to bring the policy makers, stakeholders and road safety experts on a common platform to synergise their efforts to deliberate and recommend policies in the transport sector.

UNI