Around 4.5 lakh car owners in West Bengal would be benefitted by paying Motor Vehicle Tax online if their vehicles were registered here, Howrah, North and South 24 Parganas and Barrackpore.

The e-payment facility currently would be available to the owners having accounts with the State Bank of India with net banking facilities.

The SBI payment gateway could be used for making payment of the tax registered at the Public Vehicles Department, Kolkata, RTOs of Howrah, North 24-Parganas and South 24-Parganas, besides ARTO, Barrackpore, Transport Minister Ranjit Kundu said today.

The minister said the owners of other vehicles too would also be able to make payment online soon.

To a question, Kundu said that the High Security Number plates would be introduced here shortly to prevent car theft and hijacking.

Labour Minister Anadi Sahu, meanwhile, said that the state government was preparing to collect cess on road tax from January 1 next year at the rate of 10 per cent with a ceiling of Rs 1200 for heavy vehicles, Rs 600 to Rs 800 for buses, Rs 144 for taxis and Rs 60 for autorickshaws.

The cess would be imposed here under the West Bengal Motor Transport Workers' Welfare Cess Act, 2010 for social welfare schemes of transport workers, Sahu said.