Friday 15 June 2012

How to transfer vehicle from one state to another state in India


Hi All,

I am writing this blog to explain to you the process of transferring the car from one state to another state in India. This blog is a result of my experience that I had when I moved from Delhi to Bangalore and took along with me my Maruti Alto.

When I moved my car from Delhi to Bangalore, I did not have any idea of the complexity involved in the transfer or the fact that you need to pay the road tax again in the state where you are bringing the car. If I had known about these facts before, I WOULD HAVE NEVER MOVED MY CAR from one state to another. For a car invoiced at 2.87 L, I had to pay around 40K in Bangalore just as road tax. And this is given the fact that 15K which was taken by the transport company were reimbursed by my company. It would have been much better if I had sold the car in Delhi and bought a new/second hand car in Bangalore.

Anyways, since I got trapped in this cycle of getting the car transferred, I am mentioning below the steps, I had to undertake:

(1)    I went to the RTO office 2 months after coming to Bangalore to enquire about the process to get the car transferred. I was informed that I would need following documents:

a.       Original RC

b.      Insurance

c.       Pollution certificate

d.      Original Invoice

e.      NOC from the RTO, Delhi

(2)    I had all the documents with me except for the NOC which was a news for me. This NOC is basically a document by Delhi RTO stating that they don’t have any issue if the vehicle is transferred to another state. I contacted my relatives in Delhi and requested them to visit RTO get the NOC.

(3)    They approached the RTO but as happens in any Govt office, it was very difficult to get the information. Eventually, they approached an agent who promised to get the NOC for a cost of Rs 3500. The actual fee for the NOC is around 50-100 Rs.

(4)    We continued to follow up with the agent for NOC for two months. He gave various reasons for NOC not being available ranging from there were rains and all files got drenched in water, there was a fire in the office, some files got burned, RTO officers are working on identifying what is damaged and getting the NOC will take some time.

(5)    After 1 month, my relative went directly to the RTO and with the grace of God, we was able to push for the work getting done and I got the NOC 15 days after that.

(6)    Once I had the NOC which was around 5-6 months after arriving in Bangalore, I went back to the RTO office to apply for transfer.

(7)    I was informed by the officers in RTO Bangalore that I will first have to get the address changed for my car and also pay the road tax. Applying for the new Karnataka number will be done only after that. There were some 8-10 different forms to be filled (Form 6, Form 10, Form 27, Form 28, Form 30 etc – these were all Central motor vehicles act forms. There were some Karnataka State motor vehicles act forms also which I had to fill.)

(8)    The clerk in the RTO only gave me 2 forms, she did not have other forms and suggested that I get it from the photocopy shop below.

(9)    I went to the shop, got all the forms, filled all of them.

(10)When I submitted the forms at the counter, the superintendent only picked up 3-4 forms and rest all were returned back to me. (You can judge the level of mis-communication in the RTO office).

(11)She took all the documents from me, calculated the road tax which is around 13-14% of the invoice value. Since my car was 1.5 years old, I was given a discount of 7% of the calculated tax. For an invoice of 2.87 Lakh, tax after discount came to around Rs 38200.

(12)You can only deposit tax upto 3000 in cash. Beyond that, they need a Demand Draft. So I had to come back home. I applied for the DD over netbanking. Got the draft in 4-5 days and I again went back to RTO office.

(13)I deposited the draft and got the receipt for the road tax. In addition to that they also put penalty of around 1500 on me as I should have got my address changed in 30 days of coming to Bangalore. Since I was approaching them after around 6 months, they put the penalty on me. I deposited even that as well.

(14)However, this time, I was informed that I will have to obtain two additional documents:

a.       SCRB Report (State Crime Records Bureau) need Vidhan Saudha in Bangalore. This report will indicate that my vehicle is not stolen. They gave me a letter which would help me in getting the SCRB report.

b.      I will have to obtain the vehicle inspection certificate from the RTO inspector. This will indicate that vehicle is physically present in the state and a Govt officer has seen it with his eyes and the vehicle is in driving condition.

(15)I had to come back home again and plan for going to the SCRB on a working day. I took a half day leave, went to SCRB office and to my surprise, I got the letter in just 15 mins (there was no other customer there).

(16)I again went to the RTO for getting the vehicle inspection done. I went around 10:30 AM which is the opening time of the office. I had thought I would get the inspection certificate and then complete the remaining formalities. When I checked with the people there, I was informed that inspector sits on the main road near the RTO as he has to inspect the private and commercial vehicles and they suggested me to come in the afternoon around 1 PM. Since I could not wait for that long, I came back home.

(17)I went again around 1 PM after a couple of days, only to be told that inspector already did one round of inspection and he has headed back to his chamber for lunch. The next round of inspection would happen around 3 PM. I again came back home.

(18)Again after 2-3 days, I went around 12.15 PM. There was a person (definitely not the inspector) who was sitting on the Govt table and chair and was filling forms for a lot of commercial vehicles. I checked with him when will the inspector come, he told me that he would come around 1-1.30 PM. I was sceptical from my previous experience. I waited for some time but since there was no sign of the inspector, I thought he would have cancelled his pre-lunch inspection cycle. At 12.45 PM, I was about to leave for home when inspector came over. He asked me to take the imprint of the engine number and chassis number on the car into the form. I ran around, bought a pencil, somehow took the imprint.

(19)Inspector signed on the form but also wrote something on the back side of the form. I was assuming that it would be some code for the clerk to take fixed amount from me. He then asked me to go back to the RTO office for further processing.

(20)I went back to the office. I had to take signatures of the main officer in RTO on my inspection certificate. There was a big line (mostly of people wanting a driving license), the peon somehow put me in front of the queue. I went in, got the signatures and I was done. To my surprise, no asked for any money. Probably, it was a lucky day for me.

(21)I then went back to the Superintendent who had calculated the road tax for me. He checked all the documents and asked me to submit it to the front office clerk. The front office clerk took all the documents and gave me a date 3 weeks later to come and collect the new registration documents.

(22)I went to the RTO on the designated date at 4 PM (The delivery time is 4 PM to 5 PM). For 45 minutes, no one took pains to search for my file and complete the process even though there were not many people there.

(23)When I again requested them, they said my Delhi RC is a smart card and they cannot change address on that. They need a booklet form of RC for changing the address. So they asked me to deposit another Rs 105 to get the paper booklet.

(24)The cash counter was closed for public dealing even though there was a person sitting there. To my surprise, a lady officer took money from me, went to the cash counter from inside the office and got it done. She then also went and got the paper RC prepared.

(25)What I got now was a RC (registration certificate) which was a Karnataka booklet but the registration number still remained the Delhi number. They just changed the address in that to my Bangalore address and mentioned that I have paid Karnataka road tax. They also took my original Delhi RC (never to be returned back).

(26)This completed first part of the process. After so much ordeal, I converted my smart card RC into a paper RC with just the address changed and Road tax paid mention in the booklet.

(27)I asked the superintendent about the next steps and how I will get a Karnataka registration number. She told me that NOC that I had submitted in duplicate (the one which I got from Delhi, you would get 2 copies of the NOC and you need to submit both in Bangalore RTO) will be sent back to Delhi for confirmation that it is not fudged and Delhi office actually issued that NOC.

(28)She told me to come back after 3 months and enquire with them if they received any response from Delhi. If they would have, I will get the Karnataka number only then.

(29)I went to the RTO office after 3 months to check if they received any response from Delhi. The lady there told me that I have to apply again for Karnataka number and submit the following documents:

a.       My original paper RC that I got from Bangalore RTO

b.      Insurance

c.       Pollution certificate

d.      An application on plain paper requesting RTO for a Karnataka number

(30)The lady told me that only when I submit this application, they will check if they got any response from Delhi. If they did not receive anything, process will continue.

(31)I came back home from the RTO.

This is the current situation. I still need to apply for a Karnataka number as per step 29. The only thing I have gained from this whole process is that it is mentioned in my RC that I have paid Bangalore road tax. If a traffic officer catches me, he cannot fine me on that account. Getting a Karnataka number is going to be another round of struggle in the RTO I guess.

One thing I am definitely sure of is that if and when I leave Bangalore, I am not going to take this car with me. I will sell it here in Bangalore only. It would be easy to sell a Karnataka number car in Bangalore hence I will still pursue to get it.

As and when I complete that process, I will update this blog with more information.

My advice to anyone who intends to transfer a vehicle from one state to another would be read through the above process and get yourself mentally prepared for all the hassles you are going to face. I did not pay any bribe in the whole process and I did not approach an agent. Probably, going through an agent (which definitely means spending money on bribe) might have made my life easier but I guess since this was the period in which Anna Hazaare was protesting against corruption, this has some impact on my psyche as well.

Thank you all for reading it.

Abhishek Jain


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Hi Friends,


Writing after over 3 years. Since I had a booklet form of RC with Bangalore address and it also mentioned that I have paid road tax in Bangalore, It was good enough for me. It would have kept me out of any troubles.


But eventually, I decided to sort out the issue and get the Karnataka Number so that when I decide to sell the car, I can do it smoothly.


In the meantime, I happened to visit RTO for two my other vehicles - for one vehicle - to get the address changed and for the second - getting the bank hypothecation removed. To my surprise, the situation has improved significantly. Was it because the RTO changed its office to a larger setup or because of improved governance, I am not sure. Any way, I was able to submit the above two requests for 2 of my other vehicles in around 2 hrs. The RTO made me run around from counter to counter, counter to Photocopy shop, back to counter, back to shop for envelope etc but still, I could complete all of that in 2 hrs. I am yet to receive the revised RCs for the changes I have submitted but hopefully, they would process it (keeping fingers crossed).


The above experience encouraged me to try my luck on my original Delhi Vehicle to try and get a Karnataka Number. Hence:


(1) I visited the RTO next week keeping entire first half day of Saturday just for this job. Reached office around 10 AM. They have clearly pasted instructions on what all is required to get the vehicle transferred.(2) Since I have shifted house from the address mentioned in the paper booklet RC, I had planned to just give the request for change of address and in the process trying to get the Karnataka number. 
(3) The officer came after 1/2 hr. I submitted my form. As expected, he asked for NOC and Tax paid receipt. I told him all of that was submitted 3 years back. For my luck, it accepted.
(4) He calculated the charge for change of address and issuance of smart card.
(5) One point in my favor was that if RTO accepts the request for change of address and issues smart card, it is improbable that they would issue me an RC containing Delhi registration number. Hence issuance of Karnataka Number is inbuilt into this request.
(6) When I went to pay the fee for address change (around Rs 500), the cashier told me that there is tax outstanding. Get it cleared from the officer.
(7) This was a big shock for me as I had already paid the tax. Went back to the officer and the officer asked me to get the tax cleared from the backend and gave me a person's name. After chasing multiple people in the RTO, I eventually came across the DBA (Database administrator) who kindly ran some queries in the backend to clear the tax issue.
(8) Went back and submitted the fee.
(9) Stood in a line for over 1.5 hrs to get the signatures of the transport Officer. he also signed without issues.
(10) Submitted the form and got an acknowledgement that I would be sent RC in 2-3 months else they asked me to come in September and enquire.


So this is where it stands. I am expecting Smart Card RC for all 3 of my vehicles now. Keeping the fingers crossed hoping that work would be done as expected.


Will update here when I get the RC (or face further issues).


Regards,
Abhishek