How I received my road tax refund from Bangalore RTO

Back ground : I am a IT professional working in Bangalore. I had bought a new SWIFT VDI car in Sept 2012 ,  2 Lakh down payment + 5.5 Lakh loan from SBI. The loan tenure was seven years. In the year 2014 , I was transferred to Pune and thus the whole process of vehicle transfer started. Below I will be sharing my complete experience along with required forms, fees calculations and everything possible. Hope this will help someone.

Question 1: How to move the car , 1) should you drive it or 2) carry it on a truck.
Answer1: This was pretty easy to decide. I approach Agarwal packers and mover to get a quotation. they quoted 13K for the transport charges + 3% insurance on the declared value of the car + 12% service tax. This came around 21K overall. ( based on declared value of car as 2 lakhs), so instead asked one of my friend from Pune to send his driver to pick the car from bangalore and drive it to Pune. This costed a fraction ( 3K for driver + 3.5 K for fuel +1K for toll charges) so only 7K . so saved 14K here.

Question 2: Do I need to get a new registration number to drive in Pune.
 Answers: It depends on the duration; anything less than a month would not require you to take any NOC/approvals, provide you are able to satisfy the cops with the toll receipts. Anything more would require you to pay the road tax in Pune.

Question 3:What are the necessary documents that you should collect from your home state before leaving to the new state.
Answer: We would need the below
1. FORM 28 (Four copies of Form 28 with Chasis number pencil print) : This form needs to be filled in full and signed by the local RTO office and the bank from which the loan has been taken.
2. Current PUC (Pollution under Control) certificate 
3. Insurance Copy
4. Vehicle Road Tax Copy
5. Vehicle RC Copy
6. Owner ID ( PAN and DL copy)

To get the bank sign (SBI Bank) on Form 28 , you will need to give a written application to the Branch manager of the bank, he/she will then write a letter of recommendation to the local CPC (Central processing centre) which you will need to carry yourself to the CPC. Based on this recommendation, the CPC will sign on FORM 28. (Note: try to keep a copy of the letter of recommendation that you carry to the CPC, sometimes the RTO wants to looks at it.)

Once the Bank has signed the Form , then you will need to take help from a RTO agent to get NOC. It usualy takes 1-2 weeks time and the agent charges approx 2.5K for this job. (you will find RTO agents at the showroom where you bought the car)


Question 4: Once I arrive at the new state, how long can I drive with the NOC that I carried with me. Do I need a re-register my vehicle in the new state.
Answer: The Cops are only bothered if you have paid the road tax in the new state. Please note that you can drive you car freely without getting a new number plate if you pay the road tax. Coming to the NOC part, the Cops will excuse you for six months from the NOC issue date. you could make excuse such as "Registration is in progress" and show them the NOC. I would recommend you get the vehicle registered as soon as possible as road tax penalty is calculated from the date of issue of NOC. @ 2% per month. so if you delay it by say 5 months, the penalty on road tax will be 10%. Which came to around 6.5K in my case.

Now coming to the re-registration part : The question you need to ask yourself is that would you like to reclaim the life time tax you paid in the home state. If yes then you will need to register the vehicle in the new state. Otherwise you could simple pay the road tax in the new state and drive freely with your old number plate.

Question 5: How would Road tax be calculated in the new state
 Answer : I will give my cars example here.
Invoice Value : 6 Lakhs
Road tax will be calculated as 11% of depriciated value of the car, (the depriciation would be just 3% for two years.) so the road tax is 600000 X 0.97 X 0.11 = 64020
Now as per norms you should be paying road tax within 15 days of entering the new state . otherwise you pay a penalty of 2% per month.  In my case the NOC was issued in June 2014 and I filed for registration in Sept 2014. But since the registration process takes time, the agent asked for 5 months penalty. which was 2% X 5 Months = 10% of 64020 = Rs 6402
So total Road tax Paid was 70.422K

Please note that there is no need of NOC if you just want to pay the road tax and drive peacefully, Its only required if you want to register your vehicle in the new state

You are forced to pay life time tax, annual tax has been discontinued



Question 6: How much does it cost to register the vehicle in the new state, what are the documents required.
Answer: Documents required
a) NOC from home state ( FORM 28- four copies original)
b) sales Tax NOC - FORM 2B (from the new state, original)
c) Residential proof of new state (copy of Registered rental agreement)
d) Road tax receip of new state (copy)
e) RC (Original)
f) PUC copy
g) Car Insurance copy
h) Vehicle Invoice copy
i) owners PAN and DL copy
You will again need a RTO agent to help you with the process. For sales tax NOC , you would need to visit the local sales tax office and submit a copy of all the original document and they will issue a NOC in FORM 2B.
The Agent in the new state would charge 9K for the complete thing (Getting sales tax NOC + Road tax Payment + car registration+ one affidavit), He will do the running around for you and finally get you the Road tax receipt and the new registration number.(New RC), please note that your old RC Original will not be returned.

Question 7: Once I have got a new registration number, how do I claim refund of the life time road tax paid in the home state.

Answer: I had to fill in a application and attach the necessary documents and send the application via registered post.

Application Format is given below:

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To the RTO officer

Electronic City RTO (KA 51)

Bangalore - Karnataka                                                                                                                    Date: XXXXXXXX

Subject : Refund of Road Tax ( Vehicle registration number XXXXXX)

Dear Sir,

I am _______________, First and current owner of vehicle registration number  XXXXXXX , In XXXXXX I have transferred from Bangalore to Pune due to job transfer and have taken my CAR along with me. whose particulars are given below.

I have re-registered the said vehicle and paid Life time tax in XXXXXXXX. Hence would like to claim refund of life time tax paid in Karnataka. Request you to do the needful and process my refund request.

Vehicle Details are given below

Registration number : XXXXXXX

Model: XXXXXXXX

Engine and Chasis Number XXXXXXXXXXXX

Please find enclosed:

·         Form 16 filled and signed

·         Copy of Form -28

·         Copy of RC (Karnataka and Maharashtra)

·         Copy of Road tax (Karnataka and Maharashtra)

·         Copy of Pollution Certificate

·         Copy of Insurance (old and new)

My current communication address in Pune is given below:

Name: XXXXX

Address: Tower XXXXX

Mobile: XXXXXX

Email : XXXX

Regards,

XXXXXXX

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Question 7: Once I have applied how do I track the status of my refund. 

Answer: use online service of www.onlinerti.com to track the application, 

Attempt 1: I applied for refund on 1st Oct 2015, after 3 months I have filled RTI on 27th December 2015. My RTI application returned back quoting that the door was closed, I thought I had mentioned wrong address, but after reconfirming I reapplied after 2 days and this time I got response that the application was more than 150 words (it was 200 words).

Attempt 2: I reapplied after cutting down my questions and this time I got a better response on 11 March 2016, 

The response was
1. The Citizen charter was available on rto.kar.nic.in
2. There was no derailment of duties as all officers involved have done their job.
3. The status of application was available in a 64 page report and I need to send Rs 128 to get the same.

Attempt 3: I am planning to send them the money, but dont know whom to send and how to send, this was not mentioned in the RTI response.  Will find out soon and keep you guys posted. 

31-Aug-2016: As promised here is the update:

So I filed a fresh RTI with a different set of questions and this time it rang some bells in the RTO office and I got a call in 10 days from the RTO guys. 
He asked if I could send them the CRTI from Pune RTO and mail it to them, so I again contacted my agent who helped me register the vehicle in Pune and in said that he will get it in less than 2 Hrs for Rs 200 Only, And as promised without any documentation ,The CRTI was handed over to me the very same day. I mailed the CRTI to the Bangalore RTO and called to confirm receipt. The RTO person who had called me initially confirmed receipt of CRTI and said he is in the processing my application and will respond to both RTI and refund together. 

25 Oct 2016. Hurray !!!! I received the cheque from RTO office of the amount Rs. 69050. The cheque was deposited in my HDfC bank in PUNE and was encashed on 4th Nov 2016. 

Please refer my Next post to see a summarised version of the above steps.