MoRTH has stated that if a vehicle having "BH" mark shall not require a new registration mark when the owner of the vehicle shifts from one state to another.
In order to facilitate seamless transfer of vehicles, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways introduced a new vehicle registration mark called the Bharat series (BH-series). A vehicle bearing this BH mark will not require the assignment of the new registration mark when the owner shifts from one state to another. This regime is available across the country.
As per the notification, this is an IT based solution that will free owners of vehicles from re-registration process if they shift from one state to another.
Under section 47, of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, currently, an owner is allowed to keep a vehicle in any other state other than the state where it is registered for a maximum of 12 months. The person has to get such vehicle re-registered for before the tenure of 12 months expires, the ministry said.
Ahead of this, it is also said, the vehicle registration facility under ‘IN’ series will be available on voluntary basis to Defence personnel as well as Central & State Govt employees. Employees of private companies having branches in four or more states can also take advantage of this facility. In final notification, the IN is replaced with BH.
Currently, the owner has to pay the road tax for 15 years. However, if they transfer their vehicle to any other state and go for re-registration of the vehicle, they need to pay the tax for remaining period. Then, they need to claim for the already pay amount. But, now govt put an end to this problem.
The vehicle owners will now have the option to go for BH scheme, in this case, the motor vehicle tax will be levied for two years or in multiple of two. The regime will facilitate free movement of personal vehicles when they are shifted to the new state.
The ministry also said, after completing the fourteenth year, the tax will be imposed yearly that will be half of the amount which was charged earlier for the vehicle.
The passenger vehicle has to follow the following steps to no-register a vehicle from the current state:
Take No Objection Certificate (NOC) from the parent state for new registration mark in new state.
After the road tax on pro-rata basis paid in the new state, assignment of new registration mark
Provide an application for refund of the road tax in the parent state.
Format of Bharat Series (B-series)
This provision to get refund from the parent state on the pro-rata basis is a very inconvenient process. The format of new BH series will be: YY BH #### XX where YY denotes the year of first registration BH, then code for Bharat Series, #### denotes randomized four digit number and XX are the alphabets.
It is further said, the road tax of vehicle costing up to Rs 10 lakh is 8%, 10% for vehicles who falls between Rs 10 lakh-Rs 20 lakh and road tax for vehicles costing above Rs 20 lakh is 20%. There will be 2% for diesel vehicles, whereas electric vehicles will be charged 2% less tax.
The new effect will come into effect from September 15, 2021 and is also called, Central Motor Vehicles (Twentieth Amendment). The new registration mark will be randomly generated through the portal.
