Electricity duty, road tax for costly vehicles hiked

Panaji, Mar 5 (UNI) Goa government has hiked electricity duty to 18 paise for domestic and 58 paise for industrial consumers as against the existing rate of 8 paise per unit of power consumed with immediate effect.

The revenue generated will be utilised for maintenance of street lights which was costing heavily to the government. Only two years ago, the hike was made from one paise to eight paise on this count, Chief Minister Digambar Kamat told mediapersons here today.

The Cabinet, which had approved the proposal, however, was firm that the basic charge of one paise per unit of electricity consumed would continue to remain the same, Mr Kamat said.

The government had also decided to set up Electrical Inspectorate of Goa to facilitate quick inspections and approval of transformers required for industries.

Now the new industrialists would not have to run from pillar to post for getting sanctions from the Central Electrical Inspectorate covering Goa, Daman and Diu.

He said the government had also approved hike of road tax on high-end personal cars, which was expected to generate at least Rs 4 crore additional revenue per annum.

The cabinet had further decided to appoint public relations officers at three of its main hospitals to facilitate the general public on the lines of those in Mumbai, he added.

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