Karnataka: Spurt in vehicle seizures over loan default

More than 10,000 taxis and tourist and transport vehicles have been seized by lenders over the last three months even as drivers battle skyrocketing fuel prices amid low earnings, thanks to ‘work from home’ and the decrease in purchasing power.

Drivers’ associations told DH that it was normal for financial institutions, including banks, to seize a number of vehicles in February and March to meet loan recovery targets at the end of the financial year.

“All these years, we used to see 10 to 20 seizures a day. This year, we have seen an unprecedented 200 vehicles taken away every day. No company is following rules,” said G Narayana Swamy, president of Karnataka Chalaka Okkuta.

For the associations, the lack of official data has come as a major hurdle in their efforts to fight for drivers’ rights. In several cases, drivers who repaid more than 75% of their loans have been attacked by recovery agents who had seized vehicles in the middle of trips.

A senior Transport Department official said the regional transport offices have a limited role to play in the matter. “The rise in seizures may be serious but it is a private matter between the vehicle owner and the lending company. The RTOs’ role is limited to the hypothecation-related matters and issuing of fresh registration certificates for the resale of vehicles. Till now, we have seen no need to collect data from all RTOs,” he said.

Drivers have been complaining that lenders, especially private companies, have been flouting rules during seizures. On March 6, the Sarjapur police registered an FIR against three persons based on a complaint by Mailarappa, a driver.

“I had bought a Tata Ace four years ago with Tata Finance and have been paying EMIs. On March 5, I was at the Dommasandra Circle when two people came on a two-wheeler waylaid my vehicle. They said I have failed to repay the loan and tried to seize the vehicle. When I resisted and demanded to see the identity card, they broke my steering wheel. Five others joined them and assaulted me,” the FIR said, quoting the complainant.

Another driver, Yogesh, who bought a maxi cab in 2019 for Rs 7.15 lakh, said he had repaid all but Rs 1.15 lakh of the loan when the vehicle was taken away.

“The vehicle hit a boulder in March 2020, a day before the lockdown. Though nobody was injured, the police seized it. I had to sit at home for the next two months. I spent Rs 1.5 lakh for repairs. The recovery agents took it away from the service station,” he said.

Tanveer Pasha, president of Ola and Uber drivers’ association, said about 6,000 vehicles have been seized. “The so-called recovery agents are in fact goons. Most of them have no identity cards. They don’t carry any seizure order from the courts. Drivers have nothing to defend themselves,” he said.

Both Swamy and Pasha said: “Apart from the EMI and compound interest, a driver has to pay Rs 10,000 as seizure charges. It is a vortex from which one can’t escape,” Pasha said.

Cab aggregators Uber and Ola and banks HDFC and ICICI did not respond immediately to requests seeking comment on the number of cars seized.

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