If a carrier of property with a gross vehicle weight of sixteen thousand (16,000) pounds or greater on which the privilege tax prescribed by this article has been paid shall be totally destroyed by fire, tornado, flood, collision, accident or acts of Providence, then the person or operator who has paid the privilege tax or the owner of the vehicle, in the event of a sale thereof after the payment of such taxes, shall be entitled to the issuance of a new privilege license for the remainder of the registration year for any vehicle acquired by such owner or operator as a replacement for the vehicle so destroyed, which privilege license shall be of the same tax value as the unexpired portion of the privilege tax on the vehicle destroyed. In no event shall such person claiming credit under this provision be entitled to a cash refund, but he shall only be entitled to the issuance of a license tag and decals in the same classification and of the same unexpired value as the license tag issued for the vehicle so destroyed.

In order to obtain the issuance of the replacement license, such person claiming same must present the damaged license tag and decals to the tax collector of the county of his residence or the commission or must present proof that such tag and decals have been destroyed, and must prove to the satisfaction of the tax collector or commission that the vehicle for which the tag was issued has been totally destroyed, as above set forth. If the owner does not elect to receive such credit at the time the tag is surrendered or proof is offered, the issuing authority shall issue a certificate of credit to the owner as set forth in Section 27-19-141.

When a replacement license is issued under the provisions of this article, the certificate of registration and payment of privilege taxes on the destroyed vehicle shall be cancelled by the commission. The only charges which shall be made for the issuance of such a replacement license is the registration or tag fee, unless the replacement vehicle shall require a greater amount of privilege tax than the vehicle for which the tag was originally issued, in which event the person obtaining such license shall be required to pay the increased amount of tax, prorated from the first day of the month during which the replacement tag and decals are obtained until the expiration date thereon.