THE owners of about seven lakh trucks, buses and minibuses have paid no tax and fees in the past one decade while about three lakh of those vehicles are running without fitness certificates. Repeated extension of the deadline following petitions of Dhaka District Truck Owners’ Association with the blessing of Bangladesh Sarak Paribahan Sramik Federation, led by Shipping Minister Shajahan Khan, is the main reason behind the non-payment of the dues, according to BRTA officials.
Truck and bus owners obtained the extension of the deadline on a number of occasions through the Road Transport Ministry in the past one decade. The deadline was extended till May 2014 following Shajahan Khan’s plea in October 2013, but the owners so far made no payment, the officials said. The owners already sought another extension of the deadline and waiver of penalty for not making the payments on time, and the plea was forwarded to the Finance Ministry in late 2014.The Finance Ministry, however, decided not to entertain the plea citing a High Court Division order issued on August 3, 2015. In the order, the court asked the government and the police to keep unfit motor vehicles off the roads across the country. It also asked the authorities to seize about 18.77 lakh ‘fake driving licences’ issued without proper tests and take action against the holders of the fake licences.
Bangladesh Road Transport Authority Chairman Nazrul Islam was also asked to report to the High Court the compliance in 30 days. Nazrul Islam said that transport owners received such waiver of the fine in the past on a number of occasions. Road Transport Authority officials assessed that the principal amount of the arrears for the errant transport owners stood at Tk 154 crore as of May 2014. There was no assessment on the amount of fine. The authority imposed fines three times the annual registration fees and road tax for the defaulted transport owners. The existing registration fee for a bus is Tk 50,300 and Road Tax is Tk 28,045. The rates are Tk 45,300 and Tk 18,045 respectively for a minibus.
It is unthinkable that commercial vehicle owners should pay no tax and thus the brunt of revenue collection for roads and highways should fall on private cars alone. The principal amount of 154 crore is enough to fund a substantial part of the long term maintenance needs of our highways for at least one year – but nothing is being done about it as the owners enjoy political patronage. This must stop.
All road users must be taxed equally – bad maintenance of roads and highways costs the economy by about 1 percent of our GDP every year, according to the RHD. Similarly, roads enjoy one of the highest returns of capital – between 40 and 100 percent – thus it has one of the highest returns of social capital. They are a national asset and must be periodically looked after – to not do so is misuse.
Not only that the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is presiding over an unmanageable greedy government, it will be most difficult for any other government in future to run it honestly and efficiently. To suppress those people who have become used to enjoy illegal benefits are not going to give up easily. There is no easy way to end the politics of privilege.
