The Supreme Court has held that the States are empowered to levy "lifetime tax" in advance in lump sum at the time of registration of new motor vehicles based on their cost price.A three-Judge Bench, comprising Justice S.N. Variava, Justice A.R Lakshmanan and Justice S.H. Kapadia, gave this ruling while allowing an appeal filed by the Tamil Nadu Government against a judgment of the Madras High Court striking down the scheme of levying one-time tax based on the vehicle's "weight-cum-value."