Tourist vehicles permit regime

The draft All India Tourist Vehicles (Permit) Rules, 2022, notified by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways proposes to further streamline and strengthen the tourist permit regime for seamless movement across the country. The new permit regime seeks to promote the deployment of electric vehicles (EVs) and vehicles that run on bio-fuels in the tourism sector by proposing to issue permits for battery-operated tourist vehicles and tourist vehicles driven on methanol or ethanol fuel without charging any permit fee. However, infrastructural and technological bottlenecks in the deployment of EV or hybrid engine vehicles are critical factors in how far the incentive of the zero-permit fee will impact the tourist vehicle segment. The new permit regime proposes to make the requirement of obtaining authorization from jurisdictional state transport authority along with the all-India permit redundant which will simplify the process of obtaining a permit simpler. Under the current permit regime of the All India Tourist Vehicles (Authorization or Permit) Rules, 2021, authorization is granted by the state or regional transport authority to enable tourist vehicles, operator/owners, to ply tourist vehicles throughout the territory of India subject to the payment of taxes or fees levied by the State or Union territory through which it plies while a permit is issued by the transport authority to enable plying of tourist vehicle throughout the country without payment of taxes or fee levied by the State or Union Territory through which it plies. The new draft permit rules propose only a permit issued by the Transport Authority to enable a tourist vehicle operator/ owner to ply tourist vehicles across the country on strength of a permit fee to be levied on different slabs for different categories of vehicles, thereby making the process simpler and easier than under the current regime. Finalization of the draft rules notified by the Ministry will be subject to the disposal of any objection being filed by State Governments or any person within 30 days from notification. The new rules have made authorization and permit independent of each other, and it remains to be seen if the States are going to insist on obtaining authorization along with permits as in the existing permit regime. The draft rules also propose to reduce the maximum time limit for transport authority to decide on an application for authorization and permit from 30 days from receipt of an application under the existing rules to seven days and if no decision is taken within seven days of receipt of the application, the permit shall be deemed to have been granted and generated through an electronic system. This is expected to expedite permit issuance for all-India tourist vehicles and increase the number of permits. In the current 2,36,134 All India Tourist Permit Authorizations, 34,385 All India Tourist Permitshave has been issued to date as against 1,35,946 authorization and 11,821 permits in 2021. For the deployment of EVs in large numbers under all-India tourist vehicle segments, the lack of adequate charging stations along the routes connecting tourist destinations is still a bottleneck which is expected to go away with the central and various state governments pushing for green mobility. The government issued an advisory to carmakers to introduce Flexible Fuel Vehicle (FEV) and Flex Fuel Strong Hybrid Electric Vehicle (FF-SSHEV) engines to facilitate the running of vehicles on biofuels and batteries to reduce pollution. FEV facilitates the substitution of petrol for ethanol as such engines are capable of using higher blends of ethanol mixed in petrol from 20% blend to 100% ethanol use, but cost-effectiveness will be a critical factor for deciding vehicle owners' preferences and market sentiment. While the easing of the process for obtaining a permit is expected to make tourist vehicle operations across the country smooth, the condition of roads and highways is another key factor that decides the growth of the tourism sector. The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Tourism in one of its reports highlighted that almost 40% of the total road network in the country is unpaved, National Highways constitute less than 3% of the total road network and 40% of villages have no access to all-weather roads. Improvement in road connectivity is crucial to add more tourism destinations to tourist circuits. Besides, regular maintenance and repair are needed to ensure the smooth movement of tourist vehicles which is one of the key factors for tourists in including a destination in their itinerary. Regular maintenance and repair are crucial for reducing accidents on Indian roads which need to be incorporated into overall tourism planning. "Pothole-ridden roads, uneven speed breakers, lack of service roads and general lack of maintenance are characteristic of Indian roads. Unsurprisingly, India accounts for 11 per cent of global deaths in road accidents while having only 1% of the world's vehicles," stated the parliamentary panel. Making Indian roads safer will supplement efforts to simplify the tourist vehicle permit regime for seamless movement across the country for tourism promotion in a big way.