A Lamborghini Huracan had recently made it to the headlines after its owner hit a bump before ramming the INR 3.43 crore (Ex-Showroom, Delhi) supercar into a divider on a flyover in Thane. The Huracan, which was found to be registered in the state of Pondicherry, raised a doubt in the mind of Binu Varghese regarding the evasion of taxes. Binu, a social activist, registered a complaint with the RTO office in Mumbai Central.
Following the complaint came a storm that took everyone by surprise. The Huracan was registered in Pondicherry indeed to save on octroi. The investigation revealed that the owner of the supercar had done so to avoid paying taxes of upto INR 70 lakh to the Maharashtra government. The amount of tax he paid in the state of Pondicherry came to a mere Rs. 1 lakh. It was also concluded that the Lamborghini, whose odometer read 800 kms, hadn’t been driven to or from Pondicherry.
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When the Octroi department arrived to seize the Huracan from a showroom in Mumbai, they found almost also 20 other supercars which were reportedly registered outside the state. The showroom, known as Jubilant Performance Cars located in Sewri, is said to be the service station for the Porsche Centre in Mumbai.
Officials from the Octroi department who raided the showroom served a detention notice for a number of vehicles such as Lamborghinis, Porsches, etc ordering them not to be moved out of the service centre. Govind Saindane, RTO officer, Mumbai Central, said that the BMC will investigate the case and the cars, if found to have been evading duty would remain impounded till the owner pays the duty and fines.
According to the Motor Vehicles Act, cars registered in other states have to pay road tax in Maharashtra after the expiry of 12 months from the day the cars are brought into the state.
Source: Mumbai Mirror