Few months back I, Suman Paul (FB @ architectsuman) was enquiring with you about the process of transffering a car inter-state. Most of you suggested to sell and buy a new one. I went against the wise advices. Took the plunge to see it through. Saw some good stuff and saw some ugly stuff in the process. It is tough to achieve it but doable in India with government. Jotting down here, If it helps anyone in future. Its a long read.
And thanks to all who adviced me wisely.
CAR TRANSFER
The reasons of not selling the car and go for a new one :
1. This automatic santro car was one among the last few manufactured in India before Huyindai had stopped production. It is a fantastic car to drive anywhere by anybody which never gave any failure except few occassional flats.
2. After using it for 8 years, the car still feels new and refreshing everytime I hold the wheel. The cost is recovered by its use and its a real gain if we can put it to use as long as we can.
3. The cost of a new car would be uneconomical if we had gone for an exchange.
4. Wanted to check how the car inter state transfer system works in India.
Process in Bangalore
1. Get the NOC from police commissioner's office for traffic clearance - got it instantly within 5 minutes
2. Get a pollution check certificate
3. Get bank hypothication clearance certificate
4. Apply to RTO to get RC smart card against old RC book - it came to my address by speed post in 21 days as promised
5. Along with all above documents and insurance copy - submit to RTO with a filled up form for NOC
6. Submit another filled up form to RTO office for ownership change at the new location with new owner's identity proof
7. Submit one emty envelop with stamps and home address written on it along with the forms to RTO
I did not pay a single ruppee for any of the above. All the jobs were done perfectly on time as promised by the officials at RTO office. I never follwed up with anybody by any means. Extremely satisfying experience at Bangalore RTO.
Further process specified by Bangalore RTO
1. Take the car to Kolkata along with all NOC and original documents
2. Immediately report to the RTO at Kolkata and they will verify all the documents and give a Migration certificate with which the car can be driven there for 45 days legally
3. Submit all the documents along with filled up specified forms to Kolkata RTO
4. Kolkata RTO will tell the amount of Road Tax payable on the basis of depreciated car value
5. Pay the Tax and collect the Tax paid reciept
6. RTO will issue a new RC smart card with new owner's name
7. Bring the Tax paid reciept copy to Bangalore and apply to RTO office for Tax refund
8. Bangalore RTO will verify with Kolkata RTO and refund the over-paid tax amount through bank transfer to my account
Absolutely clean methodical and logical process.
With all the documents and the car we four set off to Kolkata by road for a three days trip. This is another story for another day.
After reaching Kolkata, we tried to do the steps exactly how it was told in Bangalore RTO and that point of time we actually felt that the car is transferred to a new place called Kolkata.
Chronicle in Kolkata RTO
1. Many desks in RTO said that it can not be done for various reasons - all were baseless
2. Find some connection through known people just to start the process
3. Repeated visits to RTO just submit documents
4. Submitted documents one day and visiting after 2 weeks, nothing moved, so withdrawn all the original documents
5. Appointed one agent who ran away after couple of weeks
6. Appointed one more new agent who charged a bomb
7. After many visits to RTO, finally it got done
8. We paid road tax of Rs. 40000 which were calculated based on the new car value and not as per depriciated value - RTO said this is the rule of west bengal government to collect more tax
9. RTO charged Rs. 7000 as fine of late submission of documents - pointless to even think about it
10. RTO charged Rs. 5500 for audio system in nthe car - heard about it for the first time in life
11. Our dear agent charged Rs. 19000 to get all these things done
12. After a good six months of effort, the car got changed to my mother's name and have recieved the new RC smart card
13. Yet to get the audio tax paid reciept
14. The car is legally ready to drive on west bengal roads now
The take away from the whole process is - If we consider Bangalore as a third world place then Kolkata would be a sixth world place and it is beyond doubt.
So finally the mission is accomplished - we could retain the car with us and it is helping greatly over there and even after spending so much money at Kolkata RTO, still it worked out cheaper than exchanging the car with a new one.
One needs lot of patience to do some work with Government offices in India.
P.S: Copied verbatim from a Facebook post by Suman Paul on 2016-03-21. He has transferred his Hyundai Santro AT car from Bangalore to Kolkata.
