Entry Tax row: another T-AP faceoff in the offing

The Telangana Government's decision to collect entry tax from commercial vehicles from Andhra Pradesh is snowballing into a major controversy.

While the transport operators have stopped plying their vehicles to Andhra Pradesh from Tuesday night, the Telangana government claimed that Rs 50 lakh worth of entry tax has been collected on the night of Tuesday.
Meanwhile, the Andhra Pradesh Commercial Transport Vehicles Associations have approached the AP High Court through a lunch motion petition.The petition would be heard on Wednesday at 2.30 PM.
All commercial, transport, including passenger autorickshaws, coming from Andhra Pradesh to Telangana will have to pay motor vehicle tax from April 1. All Transport vehicles, including contract carriages, goods carriages, motor cabs, taxi cabs, commercial tractor trailers, passenger autorickshaws, entering into the state of Telangana from Andhra Pradesh shall be treated as 'Other State vehicles' and shall be subjected to the levy of motor vehicle tax at the specified rates and periods as applicable to the respective category of vehicles, an order issued by the Transport Department of  Telangana said. The move may result in the escalation of transportation cost between the two States.
Tax is being collected at Kodad, Vadapalli, Nagarjuna Sagar check posts. Only on Tuesday,As many as 300 private travel buses enter Telangana every day from AP and have to pay Rs 6000 per month as tax.
In another development, Union Minister for Transport Nitin Gadkari, who is currently in Bhadrachalam on a pilgrimage, said that levying entry tax is under the purview of the Telangana government.