[drmohitg]

Well that goes without saying. The common man has to suffer always whether it is at the hands of the NGT or the government. The so called powerful NGT lost all of its bloated image when it unsuccessfully took on the AOL foundation over their recently concluded festival on the banks of the Yamuna, with not even a word mentioned now about the so called biodiversity park that they promised. It is only with us that they can get away with such silly judgements.

[libranof1987]

Mercedes Benz has taken the argument back to the SC's doorstep.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/i...w/53594881.cms

Automobile giant Mercedes-Benz has moved the Supreme Court asking for the ban on diesel vehicles+ to be lifted. The German car manufacturing firm said it was ready to pay the environmental cess of 1% levied on the sale of diesel cars.
The Supreme Court hearing will take place on Friday.

[Abhishek3001]

What exactly does the government plan on doing with this 1% cess?How will this cess reduce the emissions?
I don't think a price difference of 1% will deter the average Mercedes customer.
Was this whole ban scenario created just to get the manufacturers to cough up money as some random tax?

[drmohitg]

Exactly. Its high time that the Government and courts disassociate pollution and money. How much of our country has been cleaned using the Swach Bharat cess? Or the Krishi Kalyan cess has prevented suicide rates among the Farmers?

Would paying an additional 1% tax would make these supposedly highly polluting vehciles "Eco-friendly"? If the courts really feel that their logic is valid and the judgement to ban these vehicles was based on facts then they should ensure that these polluting vehicles stay off the roads till a time that they adhere to the excellent and stringent environment standards of our country!

[Kandisa]

Actually till now, it is not the govt who is planning to impose this 1% 'penalty'. In fact earlier there was deliberation from the govt. that whether the SC has the authority to impose anything like this. So the tripartite mess because of NGT's directive, SC order and Govt's 'just watch and enjoy' policy, is still expected to continue. Also removal of 2000 cc ban even with additional penalty won't 've much of relief for prospective buyers unless the 10 year proposed life term of the diesel vehicles is lifted.

[drmohitg]

The government is to be blamed. They got us into this situation where the need for NGT was felt and the courts have had the luxury of passing these absurd judgments. And even now the sad part is that not much has changed on the ground apart from making lives of few citizens frustrating by making them dispose off their perfectly running cars.

[RavenAvi]

SIAM's plea against the NGT diesel ban will be up for hearing soon.

SIAM has put forth a detailed study by IIT Kanpur, who was commissioned by the Delhi government, and has argued that "even though the number of vehicles in Delhi is admittedly much higher than the population of vehicles in any of the 15 cities, it can be safely presumed that diesel vehicles cannot be the primary source of pollution in these cities."

SIAM claims "a more scientific and professional exercise is needed to find out the main causes of pollution".

It argues that a source apportionment study by IIT Kanpur commissioned by the Delhi government reveals that PM 2.5 (fine, respirable pollution particles) emission load from passenger vehicles in the capital is only 2% and from diesel passenger vehicles is 1.5%.

SIAM, however, doesn't cite other findings of the IIT Kanpur report, which show how diesel contributes much more to PM 2.5 emissions in various parts of the city than petrol and CNG. According to the report, barring Rohini, diesel vehicles contributed to 60-90% of PM 2.5 emissions in Delhi. In Vasant Kunj, for instance, they contributed to about 90% of vehicular emissions while in Okhla, the emission was about 80%.

Some experts said SIAM had been presenting data selectively and hiding the health impacts of diesel exhaust. "The report doesn't state that PM 2.5 emission load from passenger vehicles is 2%. It's an inference. What about the other graphs and findings of the report? Also, the industry doesn't talk about the toxicity of diesel—diesel exhaust has been graded a class 1 carcinogen by WHO. There is a move to phase out diesel cars in South Korea, London and Paris," said Anumita Roy Chowdhury, head CSE's clean air programme.

SIAM argues that CNG emissions also result in higher levels of oxides of nitrogen (NOx), which are a major cause of respiratory conditions.

ET

[raaj.bhalla]

Ban on diesel cars lifted by SC. Just saw this on NDTV on tv.

[Mohan Mathew A]

Supreme Court of India has lifted the ban on registration of diesel vehicles over 2000cc in Delhi with an imposition of 1% tax on all such vehicles.

http://www.ndtv.com/delhi-news/ban-o...-lateststories

[bullrun87]

Even though the ban has been lifted I don't think people from Delhi ncr will buy as many of these big engined diesels as they used to due to the 10 year rule. People have begun to doubt the future of diesel vehicles and I am sure sales figures of Delhi ncr will reflect this. By the way does anyone have any idea how the government plans to use this one percent environment cess collected?

[dean5545]

This is wrong on so many levels. Firstly the findings that the 2ltr+ engines pollute more is wrong. Second you take 8 months to come to a solution and the solution you come up with is that the customer must pay 1% more just for kicks!
Some one should challenge this court decision but ofcourse that would leave the companies with another stay order.

[avira_tk]

I'm glad that this has been reversed, not because I'm shopping for any vehicle in this category, I don't live in the affected area. The ruling will improve the lives of the salesmen in the dealerships and the workers at the plants, both of whom are rendered unemployed for no fault of theirs by an arbitrary ruling that ignored due process. The 1% cess is a joke, but raising taxes for good intentions is something we as country haven't learned to stop after so many previous blunders.

[saurabh sharma]

After planning to get myself a Storme 4x4 all through 2015 and getting the door slammed on my face around time I was planning to take the plunge last Dec, I waited & waited but finally had to buy a car and settled on Duster AWD last month. If only there was some way I can kick my own *s* right now :(

[sgiitk]

The 1% cess was to be expected. They do not want too much egg on their pretty face. No basically they are accepting that they GOOFED!

[libranof1987]

While getting involved in this matter (rising pollution) was in a way their right, considering they are the SC, I feel they have let us down awfully with their execution.

As if targeting diesel cars with 2l + engines to begin with was not wrong enough, the solution (levying 1% cess) solves absolutely no problem.

1% on a 20 lakh car is 20k, which is peanuts for someone spending 20 lakhs.

This doesn't stop or even affect sales, nor does it do anything about the pollution.

Since it had decided to poke into this anyway, I'd rather have the SC take the Govt. to task about measures to curb pollution.

The entire episode ended up being one big circus.

Originally Posted by bullrun87

Even though the ban has been lifted I don't think people from Delhi ncr will buy as many of these big engined diesels as they used to due to the 10 year rule. People have begun to doubt the future of diesel vehicles and I am sure sales figures of Delhi ncr will reflect this. By the way does anyone have any idea how the government plans to use this one percent environment cess collected?

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