Renewing your road tax aka motor vehicle licence

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gices
anonymous_4
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Kamal_Ramjattun
nicolasmourga

As the owner of a car, you have this feeling of freedom as you can go anywhere you want to and whenever you’d like to and this is undoubtedly the reason why many people save up to buy this luxury. However if you want to comply with the law, you have to make sure that you have a valid tax disc displayed on your vehicle at all times.

The motor vehicle licence in Mauritius also called “declaration” is actually referred to as road tax in the UK and other countries. You have the option to pay either for 3 months, 6 months or 12 months (1 full year). How much you have to pay for the tax disc depends on the engine capacity of your vehicle. Here’s a breakdown of the costs:

Engine Capacity		3 months	6 months	12 months

------------------------------------------------------------------

1250cc and below	Rs1100		Rs1900		Rs3500

1251cc - 1600cc		Rs1200		Rs2200		Rs4000

1601cc - 1850cc		Rs2600		Rs4700		Rs8500

1851cc - 2250cc		Rs3200		Rs5800		Rs10500

Over 2250cc		Rs4000		Rs7200		Rs13000

Places where you can renew your motor vehicle licence

  • NTA (National Transport Authority ) in Cassis
  • Post Offices
  • NTA Vehicle Examination Centre in Forest Side
  • District cash offices (Rose Hill, Mapou, Curepipe, Centre de Flacq, Mahebourg, Souillac, Bambous and Pamplemousses and Moka

The motor vehicle licence runs upto the end of the month. So if you see that on your tax disc, it says “August 2012”, then it is valid till the 31st of August of that year. If you do not renew the licence within 15 days of its expiry, you will be liable for a 50% fine on the amount you’re due to pay. It is also an offence to drive without a valid tax disc, therefore it is important that you know when yours is about to run out so that you can enough time to go and renew it, otherwise you may be stopped by the police and will have to pay a fine.

Documents needed to renew your road tax

  • Registration book of the vehicle (often referred as the horsepower document)
  • Valid insurance certificate
  • A fitness test certificate if your vehicle is over 7 years old (for private vehicles/motorcycles). All other vehicles need to produce this certificate irrespective of age.

Things to remember

You need to have a valid insurance certificate for the whole duration of the road tax you’re applying for, otherwise the officers will not issue you a new tax disc. This means that if you wish to renew your motor vehicle licence for one year and it’s going to expire in March 2012, then you will need to have adequate insurance cover on the vehicle upto 31st of March 2013. If your insurance only covers you until February 2013, you will only get 6 months road tax. You will then be able to renew for a further 3 months but after that you will need to extend your insurance to be apply to get a new tax disc.

Note that at the back of the vehicle registration book, there are entries for the date you paid for your road tax. They should have an official stamp on them. Please check that all entries have the stamp when you buy a car because a missing stamp can cause so much hassle afterwards. The officers will want to double check that you (or the previous owner) have paid for the motor licence for the previous years before issuing the new one and this can delay the whole process by upto 2 weeks.

gices
gices Level 6
I'm a Software Developer and the co-founder of Clever Dodo. Born in Mauritius and now living in the UK, I usually blog about fitness, music, spirituality and driving topics to pass on my knowledge.

11 Replies

nicolasmourga
nicolasmourga Level 1

Hi my fitness certificate expire in 15 days.. (15 sept) but i need to renew my road tax which will expire end of month (31 aug 2016) will it allow me to renew the road tax for one year?

Kamal_Ramjattun
Kamal_Ramjattun Level 1

This is a good article. I went to renew my insurance in march and figured out that my road tax already expired in feb! I went to the post office to get it renewed and they refused and asked me to go to NTA as i will have to pay a fine now. Do you possible know what's the process involved and what's the % fine?

gices
gices Level 6

You just need to go to the NTA office and show your documents and tell them for how long you want your road tax for. They will then charge you 50% extra on the amount you're due to pay as fine.

Ralhan_Dauhajee
Ralhan_Dauhajee Level 1

when you are going to buy a second hand car from someone, sometimes they say that the declaration or the insurance has just been renewed and thus they do not want to lower the selling price of the vehicle... my question is that, is this declaration or insurance that the former owner of the car renewed, is it transferable to the new owner? if the owner renews insurance for 1 year, then decides to sell the car after 2 months or so, does this mean a waste of money on unused insurance coverage? any more details regarding this is most welcome, Thank u Cleverdodo :) B.regards

gices
gices Level 6

Road tax (declaration) is not refundable, that's why sellers have no other option than to sell their cars with the road tax. It will remain valid until its expiry date and therefore the new owner (buyer) can use it without any problems.

Car insurance on the other hand can be reimbursed. You just have to contact your insurer and they will refund you the premiums for unused months. It can also be transferred to another vehicle but a recalculation of the premiums will be done and you might need to pay the difference in quotes (between old and new).

Nico_Ab
Nico_Ab Level 1

i need help, this year in MAY i bought my car insurance but i was very busy at work, when i went to the post office to renew my road tax the counter person said i was late for 25 days after buying my car insurance and only be able to renew my road tax for 6 month only, what i want to know is, do i have to buy for full 1 year insurance for my car or i can still renew my road tax using the previous insurance ?

gices
gices Level 6

That's already explained above. If you wish to renew your road tax for 6 months, then you need to have car insurance covering 6 months ahead from the date you're applying for the road tax. If you go to the post office today and you are insured up to the 3rd of June next year, then you won't be able to get a 6 months tax disc because you fall short by 3 days worth of insurance cover.

anonymous_4
anonymous_4 Level 1

Hi, would like to know what are the documents we need for the application of a new motorcar licence please in case where the owner is abroad, and we only have copies of all the documents needed. Thanks

anonymous_4
anonymous_4 Level 1

Hi. Many thanks for this article. It was very helpful as I am abroad and considering getting a car while visiting friends and family. There is very little on the NTA website (at least I could not see it).Unfortunately, there is no star rating for this article but if there had been, I would rate it 5 out of 5 stars.
Cheers.

hi, am Ritisha ,Assitant Branch Manager of PHOENIX INSURNCE (MAURITIUS) LTD. u need INSURANCE for security purpose ,fITNESS to check if you r fit on road THEN DECLARATION for road tax.

i have my office number [tel removed] for any help .

thanks

gices
gices Level 6

We do not allow self promoting posts here. First contribute something valuable by genuinely helping others, then we'll do the same for you.

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