Karnataka RTO Seizes 450 Out Of State Vehicles: Collects Rs. 41.4 Crores Unpaid Road Tax
Bengaluru is one of those cities that is infamous for road rage and traffic jams. There is one more thing that brings the name of the city to the headlines, and that is the transport department. They have been conducting many drives against out-of-state vehicles lately, and every month we come across at least one report of the authorities seizing vehicles. This time around, we have come across a report where the Karnataka transport department seized 450 out-of-state vehicles and registered cases against the owners.
The recent incident where a Lamborghini driver drifted in the middle of the road in the CBD area is what made the department conduct stricter drives. As part of the drive, the Karnataka Transport Department seized 450 out-of-state vehicles and registered 3,207 cases against owners for non-payment of taxes between April 2025 and March 2026. The department collected Rs 41.4 crore in taxes and Rs 68.6 lakh in fines from these cases, as per the data.
M. P. Omkareshwari, Additional Commissioner for Transport, said, “We’ve been doing routine checks, as there is a constant number of out-of-state registered vehicles in the state at all times. We get many new registrations from Puducherry and second-hand vehicles from Delhi. Also, commonly, people who move into the city for education tend to settle here but don’t get their vehicles re-registered in the state.”
Over the last one year, the department has conducted routine checks on over 20,875 cars. After the Lamborghini incident, the department is now planning to conduct special drives in April to crack down on such vehicles. Out of the 3,207 cases registered, the RTO in South Bengaluru saw the highest number of cases at 432. It was followed by East Bengaluru with 413 and K. R. Puram with 385 cases. The Yelahanka RTO saw around 145 cases, which was the lowest, and West Bengaluru recorded 149 cases.
The Central Bengaluru RTO collected the highest taxes at Rs 3.7 crore. In most cases, people who buy such expensive cars often look for loopholes and try to get their vehicles registered in places with lower road tax. We have seen people go and register their vehicles in Puducherry for the same reason.
If you have a vehicle registered in Puducherry, you can use it in the Union Territory for the time period for which you have paid the taxes. If you are permanently shifting to another state, it is always advised to get the vehicle registered in the new place.
As per the Central Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, vehicles are allowed to stay in another state for up to 11 months before the owner has to re-register them in the state in which they are. However, the Karnataka Motor Vehicles Taxation (Amendment) Act, 2014, states that non-Karnataka-registered vehicles can only stay in the state for 30 days, and once they cross this mark, they can be fined.
If the vehicle owner fails to get the vehicle registered in the new state, he or she is actually driving the vehicle illegally, as the owner has not paid the road tax of the new state. Road tax collection is calculated depending on the age of the vehicle.
If a vehicle is 10 years old, then the owner has to pay road tax for only the remaining five years of the vehicle's 15-year life in the new state. So, if a vehicle is two years old, the road tax for the remaining 13 years has to be paid in the new state according to the Central law.