[ashutoshb]

An internal Planning Commission note shared by SIAM says:

• Personal cars consume 0.6% of the diesel consumed in the country.
• Goods vehicles consume the maximum 37.9%
• Agriculture 18.8%
• Buses account 6%
• Taxis 2.1%
• Jeeps/MUVs 2.5%
• Three-wheelers 3.6%
• Power 6.8%
• Railways 3.7%
• Industry 5.6%
• Others 12.5%

Currently, small cars in India attract an excise duty of 10% while big cars are taxed at 22%. Ahead of the budget, there is speculation that the government may hike the excise duty on diesel cars to "make up for the subsidy" their owners receive on account of the lower price of the fuel. The Delhi government already imposes extra registration tax on diesel vehicles, though it attributes this to concerns on environment pollution by diesel cars.

Source: Personal cars account for 0.6% of India's diesel consumption - The Economic Times

[vina]

Originally Posted by ashutoshb

An internal Planning Commission note shared by SIAM says:

• Personal cars consume 0.6% of the diesel consumed in the country.
• Goods vehicles consume the maximum 37.9%
• Agriculture 18.8%
• Buses account 6%
• Taxis 2.1%
• Jeeps/MUVs 2.5%
• Three-wheelers 3.6%
• Power 6.8%
• Railways 3.7%
• Industry 5.6%
• Others 12.5%

...

Source: Personal cars account for 0.6% of India's diesel consumption - The Economic Times

If the report is true this shows the govt. as a bunch of liars - for some time now everyone has been clamoring how personal vehicles are taking a large pie of the subsidy, and yet personal cars + Jeeps/MUVs (a large fraction of which are taxis) + taxis (meaning indicabs) take about 5% of the total !

The "others" head is probably mostly diesel gensets - govt's own inability to provide electricity is behind that one.

[drmohitg]

The problem is the Govt has become just an organisation seeking ways to increase its revenue whichever way possible. So the result is increase in Petrol prices and never ever even try to address the root cause of why they are so high to begin with. At the same time increase taxes on diesel cars since by doing this either the consumer will buy the Petrol car and keep adding to the govt's income or pay up upfront itself in case thy still choose to go with diesel.

I think the modern diesel engines have come a long way from what they used to be before. Even the fuel quality must be improving to some extent. And the best part is the increased FE that diesel cars give. An increase in 4-5 kmpl over the petrol sibling is phenomenal specially when you project the figure for the whole country. There is such a huge amount of fuel saved. Why discourage them?

[ortopilot]

Now that dual pricing for diesel is out of question

No dual pricing for diesel: Pranab - India News - IBNLive

No deregulation, dual pricing for diesel: Reddy - The Times of India

I do not see any other way for the Govt to specifically recover diesel subsidy from the Luxury car owner segment, at the end of the day increased tax on personal/luxury diesel vehicles is a far more practical approach to recovering subsidy than dual pricing.

That having been said whether it is required or not is a whole other debate

[DicKy]

0.6%!!!
And all the hullabaloo of saying that private car owners are draining away the fuel or using subsidised diesel meant for farmers.
Surely i cannot find any other country where the car ownership is fast growing and aspirational value too high that people keep on buying and using cars even if the govt. tries all possible ways to deter them from. Just think how it would have been if nice road infra ,correctly priced fuel and active encouragement from govt. for alternative fuel usage like it is in so called 'communist china. We would have overtaken China long before.

[Gansan]

Since this data is from SIAM, I will take it with a pinch of salt. Expect them to be biased.

And even if it is .006%, they should pay more for the diesel. Actually we should add cars and MUV/SUV together, so it is 3.1%.

[bblost]

Personal cars consume 0.6% of the diesel consumed in the country.
Goods vehicles consume the maximum 37.9%
Taxis 2.1%
Jeeps/MUVs 2.5%
Three-wheelers 3.6%

I am curious how they figure this out.
As all these vehicles fill up from the same fuel pump and no one keeps a log on vehicle type.

[sa_kiran]

As always, this is playing with statistics. It says that 0.6% of total diesel consumed in the country is consumed by cars. What it does not say is how this 0.6% compares with total petrol consumed by cars.

Also, everybody knows that diesel is mostly by taxi operators, big cars and SUVs; the categories that should not be beneficiaries of the subsidy.

[CrAzY dRiVeR]

Originally Posted by Gansan

Since this data is from SIAM, I will take it with a pinch of salt. Expect them to be biased.

And even if it is .006%, they should pay more for the diesel.

What about jeeps and MUVs then? A person with an Innova/ Land Cruiser pays less while a person with a diesel swift or punto pays more?

[ani_meher]

This seems greatly biased. Are jeeps/MUVs not personal vehicles? Where exactly a Ford Endy or Toyota Fortuner fit? The tax hike for diesel vehicle seems a good way to cover the subsidy atleast partially.

[wildsdi5530]

Where is the Armed forces? Aren't they one of the big spenders?
Also a previous report had definitely said 15%. That figure is more true. Private cars with their 300L diesel tank and fuel efficitnce of 1-3 kmpl surely consume more than the said 0.6 or 3.1%
Infact the whole under recovery should be set off by over taxing the 0.6%.
Common sense. You buy the figo at 6Lakh INR. What if after taxes, a figo costs 600 Lakhs ( to pay for underrecovery of the remaining 99.4%) then no one will buy it and everyone will be happy.
Except the oil companies who will still have the time honoured under recovery like they have had.

[Turbokick]

What fraction of MUV/SUV section contribute the diesel consumption ?
Most MUVs(Taveras,Mahindras,innovas,tatas) are commerically used for commercial purpose.
Smaller section (Scorpios,safaris etc) contribute to private purpose.
Even miniscule section (Endy,Tfort etc) consume diesel proportion.

[Gansan]

Even cars/SUV/MUV used as taxis should come in to the net. After all they charge your fare based on petrol prices, even if the vehicle runs on LPG,CNG or Diesel.

[phamilyman]

I refuse to believe this 0.6% number. As always, there is no clarity on the dataset (how old is the data/region etc) etc etc.

[SunilM]

A report from SIAM has a definite conflict of interest and is heavily biased. They have tried to slice and dice the data (which itself may not be entirely accurate) into segments to show the diesel vehicle figures very low - since the government is after it!

Decreasing taxes is also a non-starter. In a country like ours, where hardly 1-3% of the population pays income tax, the government HAS to collect revenue from elsewhere. Oil tax is one of the highest indirect taxes and a big source of revenue for center and states and there is absolutely no chance that it will be waived off or even reduced by a little.