Octroi In Mumbai Must Be Abolished.

[Honest 836]

My dear friends as we know that Octroi is being charged here in Mumbai, Thane & Mira-Bhayander areas from Traders as well as general public. Maharashtra is the only state where Octroi is being charged. Gujarat and Punjab government already promised to abolish Octroi from there states.

Not only Octroi is being charged heavily from Traders as well as general public but also Octroi agents harass people. If a person doesn't know about the Octroi rules and enter the city without paying the Octroi charges. Then Octroi agents follow the person, take him to the Octroi office, harass the person and ask for penalty as much as 10 times of the original octroi charges. Otherwise they demand bribe from them.

Conditions in Mira-Bhayander is worsened by the time. As many small scale industries already packed their businesses from this area, due to heavy Octroi being charged in Mira-Bhayander.

Octroi officials posted at local railway stations always harass innocent people. Even products which are bought for personal use or home use being charged Octroi on it.

It is right that Octroi generates revenue for the state but it encourage corruption also. Government of Mahrashtra must think to abolish this practise of Octroi as soon as possible.

Although Mumbaikars were being promised by politicians several times for abolishing the Octroi. But no such confirmation is received till date.

Octroi is a very very ill-fated practise and this must be abolished at the earliest.

My dear friends what do you think about this ? Your comments are welcome.

Regards.

Edited December 13, 2006 by Honest

[prathod 3]

Arey Bhai,Why are you planning to stop income of rich muncipal officers.

Octroi generates black revenue to many people at the octroi nakas and not only the muncipal staff but also many people earn from it.I know of many people who just give 3-4 hours per day at the octroi post and take home a monthly amount not less then 10-12 lacs.

Its only a dream that octroi will be abolished,infact no one wants it to be abolished,even some traders.

Recently Maharashtra govt conducted a survey and decided to abolish octroi in Maharashtra pending opinion from muncipal commissioners of different towns and cities.The govt gave them 3 options to cover up the revenue generated from octroi but all the three options wont generate under_the_table revenue for any of the commissioners or thier staff so there is no hope for relief from octroi.

[Honest 836]

Octroi Nakas not only creat nuisance but also they are the major factor for pollution. Trucks coming from all over India wait here for atleast 2 to 3 hours and pollute the region and also traffic got jammed their.

And my dear Prathod you are absolutely right that Octroi Nakas are the richest source to generate the black revenue.

Dear Prathod here I want you to share with all our co-members about your horrible experience with Octroi naka at Mira Road. If you don't have any problem to share with us what happened when u r coming back to your home alongwith your friends with 5 Reliance cellphones which you purchased from Mumbai. When you was stopped by Octroi people, what happened there ?

Regards.

[prathod 3]

I think Honest you should start a detective service you would be great hit.

That octroi thing was a horrible experience and I was happy that I had forgotten.But thanks to you,you refreshed it.

Ok here is the octroi story,its an oldone so I am doing some cut-paste.

This was in the first week of July 2003,when the 501 monsoon hungama was announced.

I and my four freinds decided to try reliance and accordingly we purchased 5 connections from a dealer in kandivali.I took the delivery of all the five phones and was coming

to mira road where we stay with the mobile phones in my kinetic honda as i neared the octroi naka at kashimira the octroi people stopped me and asked for octroi for the mobile phones.I told them that no octroi was applicable for the phones which is for personal use,but they were not ready to listen.there was a big argument about the phones and later one mr kishore agrawal who owns the octroi started saying that now i will have to pay 11 times of octroi as penalty which he calculated as Rs 17500 as i was running away with the phones and started saying that reliance should have come to us earlier and will now see that reliance comes on its knees as they have seized many more phones and will continue doing so.I called up reliance customer care but nobody over there had any reply.what i wanted to know is there any octroi payable on the handsets if yes why did they not specify it on the boxes and if not why anybody from reliance is not aware of it.I have been told that there is more then 1000 phones in the kashimira bhayender muncipals custody,who is responsible for getting it back ?

I was very busy during those days and almost gave up the hope of getting the handsets back.

To start with I misplaced the acknowledgement which I had taken from them and by the time I got it back the agency which had consificated my phones had lost thier contract to pappu kalani's company who till date are managing the octroi over there.

Now the reliance part of the story,I tried contacting reliance thru many dealers including the one from whom I bought those sets but they were not willing to give the letter which they said was supposed to be given to the octroi people as it seems that since the things were imported and octroi and customs were paid at the time of getting the consignment in India no more octroi was applicable on it.

Now meanwhile we started getting bills for the phones which were not even activated dialing *228.We called up reliance and told them about the problem but you can guess what response we must have got from the customer care people.

So after a lot of thinking we told reliance that these connections are not taken by us and we are getting bills for it,they asked us to file complain with the police and give them a copy of it.we did that and got rid of the bills.

Sorry for such a long post but Honest insisted that even if this experience benifits one person on the forum its worth posting it.

Edited December 14, 2006 by prathod

[Honest 836]

^^^

@prathod

My dear friend I'm happy to hear from you that you get rid of the bills which you were receiving from Reliance at that time. But at the same time I am feeling sad to know that you didn't got your handsets back from them.

So all my dear friends lets learn the lesson from our dearest Prathod and let us be careful next time buying handsets from outside the territory in which we live.

Regards.