Lucknow, Oct 30 : The Uttar Pradesh government has brought about sweeping changes in the structure of various transport taxes, effective from Thursday.

Announcing this here Friday, Principal Transport secretary Pankaj Agarwal said: "A decision to that effect was taken earlier this week with a view to providing respite to the people from the erstwhile complex tax structure."    

"Several taxes have been reduced while the procedures have been made simple and consumer friendly," he told IANS.

The most significant of all relief was the total exemption of tax to all CNG-run commercial passenger vehicles, including all types of taxis plying in the National Capital Region (NCR).

"That will provide the much needed respite to commuters between Noida and Delhi," Agarwal said.    

Another important decision was complete tax exemption to all private vehicles run on battery or solar energy.    

Small commercial vehicles that were required to deposit tax on an annual basis will now have the privilege to pay one-time tax.

"A rebate of 10 percent would be given to those opting for one-time tax that would save the vehicle owners from running to the transport office year after year," Agarwal said.    

While withdrawing the additional levy charged on all city buses, the government has also decided to give incentives to bus operators to use new buses.

Instead of the flat tax on all private buses, it would now be payable as per the age of the bus. "Newer the bus, higher the rebate in tax," the official said.    

A flat 50 percent tax rebate has also been allowed on commercial vehicles carrying students and factory employees, while similar relief was being given to tourist buses and tourist taxis coming in from other states.    

Another significant shift was to bring the road tax and other levies on diesel vehicles at par with that charged on petrol-run vehicles. At present, the tax charged on diesel vehicles was double that of petrol-run vehicles.    (IANS)