The government is yet to decide on the restoration of octroi charges demanded by the Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) during its budget unveiling ceremony last week.
Recently, the DNCC Administrator Akhter Hussain Bhuiya proposed levying octroi charges on heavy vehicles and also imposing charges on any vehicle entering the city.
Octroi charges are payable at the entrance of a city by owners of vehicles carrying heavy industrial goods, such as trucks and lorries.
Abu Alam Md Shahid Khan, secretary of the local government division at the Ministry of LGRD and Cooperatives, told the Dhaka Tribune that the government would take a decision after verifying the demands of the city corporation.
Both the city corporations of Dhaka in their budgets for fiscal year 2013-14, announced on separate days last week, demanded a share of the revenue collected from city vehicles by the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA).
Md Nozmul Islam, administrator of Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC), on Thursday said both the city corporations should get 75% share of the revenue, as “they are the ones who construct and repair the roads on which vehicles ply.”
He also proposed that the government should make it obligatory for all vehicles, carrying number plates of other districts, to collect tax tokens worth Tk1,000.
“The city corporations have to spend millions in constructing, repairing and maintaining all the roads in the city, for which vehicles have to pay no charges. Whatever they do, lands in the exchequer of BRTA,” he said.
Akhter Hussain Bhuiya, defending his demand for restoration of octroi charges, said, “The octroi system was in effect in the 80’s but cancelled later. If we could restore it, we could earn over a billion taka per year.”
“Heavy vehicles enter the city regularly and put enormous strain on our roads. Millions of taka are pumped into road repair projects every year. But BRTA doesn’t give us any share of the revenue collected through vehicle registration, licence issuance and other charges.”
The DNCC administrator urged the government to either restore the octroi charges, or alternatively, increase its block allocation in this regard from existing Tk8m to Tk100m.
About revenue sharing between BRTA and the two city corporations, Abu Alam Md Shahid Khan said revenues collected from vehicles go into the fund of the government.
“Every year, the city corporations have more money coming from the national budget than the BRTA have, and they have more sources of revenues too. You have to consider any plan as being part of a central plan.”
“The government will follow its own course in this regard,” he said.
