Licence renewal costs 4,835!

Hyderabad: Strange are the ways of the officials of the RTA. Md Ghouse, a resident of Malakpet, got a shock of his life when he applied for renewal of his driving licence. While the late fee as per the rules is Rs 1,000, he had received a reply that he would have to pay Rs 4,835 for confirming a slot for the renewal of his licence.

Md Ghouse had two licences, including motorcycle with gear (MCWG) category, which expired on October 2, 2015 and transport licence, which expired on November 26, 2016 (transport licence valid only for three years). In the normal circumstances, the applicant would have to pay only Rs 100 as late fee but, because of a notification issued by the Centre on December 29, 2016 specifying new rules (Rule 81 of CMV issued by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways) for the RTA services, the motorist would have to pay Rs 1,000 as late fee.

The state government issued notification and started implementing the said rules since January 11, 2017. As per the rules since then, the late fee for delay in renewing the driving licence should be Rs 1,000. The motorist would have to pay Rs 1,000 irrespective of the delay up to five years.

In Ghouse’s case, the MCWG licence expired in 2015 and transport licence expired in 2016. In both cases, he would have to pay only Rs 1,000 as penalty. However, when he booked a slot on January 2, 2018, he was asked to pay Rs 4,000 as late fee, Rs 300 as application fee, Rs 200 as smart card, Rs 300 as service charge and Rs 35 as postal charges totaling Rs 4,835 for confirmation of the slot. Shocked over this, Ghouse decided not to pursue the slot. As per the new rules, Ghouse would have to pay only Rs 1,835 as it has been only two years after the expiry date.

A similar case came into light when new rules were implemented in the state during February last year. An auto owner was asked to cough up Rs 53,000 for getting fitness certificate for his vehicle. The owner was imposed a penalty of Rs 50 per day for not getting the required fitness certificate. The vehicle owner said that he would not get half the money even if he sells his vehicle. This had led to hue and cry by the auto unions in the state and they opposed the penal amount.

Keeping in mind such anomalies, the Centre has decided to give relaxation in the rules and asked the state authorities not to collect penalties for the pre-notification period. The Central Gazette notification read as “It is clarified that the revised rates for delay can be charged at the new rates from the date of publication of the notification ie, December 29, 2016, and not retrospectively.”

The officials had no clue on the issue and simply said that this was system generated after all services were made online. “We cannot help. The system tells us how much the fine is, and we tell the applicant. There is no human interference here,” an official said.

According to sources, if the renewal delay is quite long, instead of paying fine, one could apply for a fresh licence. “The only problem is he would have to obtain an LLR first and then the permanent licence, but it would work very economical,” the sources said. Comparative fees before and after issuing of the notification by the Centre applicable from January 11, 2017