The T-government has decided to levy tax on all private vehicles, stage carriers and goods carriers entering Telangana from Andhra Pradesh, from April 1.
Before the formal bifurcation of the state, governor E S L Narasimhan had decreed that no tax will be levied by either state for intra-travel of passengers and goods until March 31, 2015.
Now, lured by the prospect of netting crores of rupees in revenue, the T-government has decided to go ahead with its plan. This means that travel fare will increase by more than 30% from AP to Telangana as will the prices of all essential commodities etc as the excess cost will be passed on to the end-consumers.
The Telangana government has threatened to seize all vehicles which fail to comply with the rules. The AP government has protested the decision requesting Telangana to go with the old system as Hyderabad was the joint capital for ten years.
How can vehicles be taxed for entering their own capital is the contention of the AP govt. AP Transport Minister, Siddha Raghava Rao had called up Transport Minister of Telangana, Mahender Reddy for a discussion on the issue to which Mahender Reddy agreed. However, KCR stepped in and admonished Reddy for his overenthusiasm which he said would deprive revenue to Telangana. The meeting was cancelled.
To make life as uncomfortable as possible for AP is clearly the objective of the government of the revenue-surplus State of Telangana.
