Shimla, Sep 6 (PTI) Luxury buses registered in other states which operate in Himachal Pradesh without paying taxes will be fined Rs 5,000 per day, Deputy Chief Minister Mukesh Agnihotri said on Wednesday.

However, Agnihotri, who holds the transport portfolio, said buses running in the industrial belt of Baddi-Barotiwala-Nalagarh would be exempted for a month.

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He said luxury buses registered in other states are not allowed to operate in Himachal Pradesh without paying tax from September 1 and field officers of the transport department will fine such vehicles Rs 5,000 per day.

The minister had earlier said that luxury buses have been running in Himachal Pradesh for the past 10 years without paying any tax to the state government. There are 200-250 such buses, he added.

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Registration certificates of all 15-year-old vehicles in the government sector have been cancelled and they have been removed from the roads, the deputy chief minister said, adding these vehicles are being replaced with electric vehicles.

He said the transport department will generate an additional revenue of Rs 1,000 crore by plugging leakages, working with efficiency, cracking the whip on outside vehicles entering the state without paying taxes and making registration of all vehicles mandatory.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)