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Motor Vehicles Department cracks down on vehicle dealers

Licences of 71 dealers suspended across state for levying handling charges.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Motor Vehicles Department has cracked down on the illegal collection of handling charges by vehicle dealers from customers. It has initiated action to suspend the trade licences of 71 vehicle dealers across the state and register cheating cases.

Transport commissioner Tomin J. Thachankary said that even as vehicle manufacturers met the pre-delivery inspection and other related expenses of dealers before the delivery of vehicles to the customers, most traders used to collect ‘handling charges’ from customers for new vehicles. This was illegal.

He asked the public to alert the transport commissioner over mobile phone (8547639000) by SMS or WhatsApp or through email: tcoffice@keralamvd.gov.in.

“Annually, about 8 lakh new vehicles are sold in Kerala. With handling charges ranging from Rs. 2,000 to Rs. 1.5 lakh, depending on the cost of vehicles, dealers were looting about Rs. 320 crore from the customers every year,” said Mr. Thachankary

The regional transport officers carried out surprise checks of the vehicle dealers across the state on Tuesday morning and 71 dealers were caught red-handed.

The majority of them were in Palakkad — 13, followed by nine in Ernakulam and seven in Kasargod. Only three erring dealers were caught in the state capital.

Showcause notices were served to all the dealers. Steps to suspend all trade licences and initiate criminal cases for cheating would be taken. All RTOs were directed to cancel the trade licence of repeated offenders.

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( Source : deccan chronicle )
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