Telangana introduces road safety cess with new Motor Vehicles Taxation Bill

Hyderabad: Telangana on Friday decided to levy a road safety cess on all new vehicle registrations as Transport Minister Ponnam Prabhakar introduced the Telangana Motor Vehicles Taxation Bill, 2025, in the Assembly.

Under the proposal, the road safety cess will be ₹2,000 for two-wheelers, ₹5,000 for light motor vehicles and ₹10,000 for heavy vehicles. In addition, four-wheeler light goods vehicles will now pay a one-time life tax of 7.5 percent instead of the earlier quarterly tax.

The Minister said the changes followed detailed consultations with transport department experts. Moreover, he noted that the cess complied with Supreme Court directions and aligned Telangana with similar frameworks already adopted by Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Gujarat.

Prabhakar said the government would use the cess to strengthen road safety infrastructure. He added that the policy aimed to improve compliance and reduce accidents across the State.

Road safety cess to fund enforcement and awareness

Prabhakar announced that January 1 to 31 would be observed as National Road Safety Month in Telangana. Therefore, he urged citizens to actively take part in road safety awareness programmes.

As part of enforcement measures, schools will collect affidavits from students and their parents committing to follow traffic rules. Meanwhile, the education and welfare departments will monitor school-level participation.

The Minister said the government, in collaboration with UNICEF, would establish Children’s Traffic Awareness Parks in schools. Currently, about 1,000 transport officials oversee nearly 1.8 crore registered vehicles in Telangana.

Prabhakar also asked vehicle owners to regularly check fitness certificates and strictly follow traffic regulations. At the same time, the department has begun identifying accident-prone black spots and installing speed-monitoring cameras.

Referring to clean mobility, he said Telangana’s electric vehicle policy had increased EV adoption and helped reduce pollution. Finally, he announced plans to set up automatic driving test tracks in the State on the lines of Delhi’s model.