Motor Vehicles Department cracks down on vehicle dealers

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.

 

 

Download the all new Deccan Chronicle app for Android and iOS to stay up-to-date with latest headlines and news stories in politics, entertainment, sports, technology, business and much more from India and around the world.