[dZired]

The Supreme Court has lifted ban on the registration of diesel cars having engines bigger than 2,000 cc in Delhi and NCR. The ban was imposed in December 2015 in order to curb rising pollution levels in the city. This resulted in huge losses to manufacturers like Toyota and Mercedes-Benz. Automakers like Mahindra had to develop new smaller engines to maintain sales in the country's biggest automotive market.

The decision comes after companies like Mercedes-Benz and Toyota moved to the Supreme Court against its ban on diesel vehicles. They also agreed to pay an extra environment tax of 1% on sales of diesel cars that have an engine capacity of 2,000 cc and more.

This prompted the apex court to lift the said ban and impose a 1% green cess. As a result, manufacturers selling diesel vehicles with engines larger than 2,000 cc will need to pay 1% tax on the ex-showroom price of each vehicle. This amount will be deposited in a separate bank account, opened by the Central Pollution Control Board in a PSU bank.

The Supreme Court bench that announced the decision also made it clear that the 1% green cess is a temporary tax, which can either be increased or decreased in the future, as per the court's discretion. Moreover, the Court may also extend this tax to vehicles with engines smaller than 2,000 cc, or even remove the tax altogether, as proposed by the Union Government.

Source: Economic Times

Link to Team-BHP News

[centaur]

Really not sure on the logic around this apart from the fact that the sales for diesels would go down by a certain number. How are they going to undo the damage that is done, with the money collected? Hire people to clean the air? Absolute rubbish. Instead make pollution norms even stricter and phase out polluting vehicles. If a 15 year old diesel is less polluting than a 10 year old petrol, it is actually doing less harm than the petrol. SO singling out diesels alone is something beyond understanding to me

[manishk123]

Who will pay for the losses suffered by these auto companies over the last year after making investments in this country of thousands of crores. This knee jerk reaction mentality of the government/beaurocrats must go if we are to be a developed country inviting world class players to "Make in India'.

[pugram]

Govt should ensure that PUC centres are available and do periodical / random checks to ensure testing equipments are in order. I don't think there is a single working PUC centre in Chennai. How the 1℅ green cess will improve the environment - god only knows

[manishkapadia]

There is only one way to describe this " Opportunistic ". Car manufacturers offered to be cessed, and the government Winked. Win for the Automobile Manufacturer, Win for the government. Who loses? The customer. Environment ? Now when was this actually about making the air cleaner.

[RaghuVis]

Not sure why suddenly the blame is on Government/Bureaucrats for this!
The Ban and the subsequent lifting of ban with 1% cess was done by Green Tribunal and Supreme Court respectively. And if you really want to blame government, be specific as to whether it is Central or State Government you want to blame

I do agree this ban and lifting is very absurd and takes away the confidence of investors for long term stability.

[hybridpetrol]

OK, now the courts have come up with a great solution - 1% green cess. So, the pollution problem which was supposedly caused by diesel vehicles will be addressed by a few thousand rupees.
I think this is done with a hope that -
a) The car buyers will not be able to pay 1% green cess. For a Fortuner buyer - this 30K additional burden is too much to bear.
b) The car manufacturer now will stop making diesel cars, because of less demand.
c) 1% Green Cess will be utilised by the Government effectively to curb pollution in other ways - such as making appropriate studies to find out what are the major causes of pollution and address them first.

Now, we should be grinning, because we knew this is how it will end. There is no problem in India, which cannot be solved by some cess / fine. Having said that, the courts have shown that they might any time come with a ban - so car buyers should think twice before buying bigger diesels or diesels altogether, which is the reason for dwindling diesel sales.

[autobahnjpr]

Great ! At least this will make cars costlier and make people think twice before buying one. However it needs to be seen how this money will get utilized, who will get to spend it, transparency in spend etc.
It would be great if this money is utilized in road safety measures, safety awareness and planting trees.

[1.2TSI7DSG]

IMOH

Pathetic move by the Supreme court.

Eventually the extra cess (like everything else) will be passed on to the end customer. So people like you and me will bear the burden of the excess cess. A buffon like me would pay that extra 1% and get the supercar i deserve/want.

Just to give a ball park figure

Scorpio 15 l will have a 15 k price change. does not really affect my buying decision. something of a lakh (10%) on a Scorpio will change a descion to buy a smaller-engine car

Similarly a merc benz E class(and the likes) costing 50l will cost me 50k more. Really i wouldnt bother about it ever. Something like a change of 10 l (20%) would change my decision. (5 l really doesn't matter at that price)

Further, I doubt where this cess will be used. Is RS 50,000 (considering 50l car)enough to offset the pollution degeeration? Or will it disappear in the government kitty?

Need a better structure!

[landcruiser123]

With due respect, the honorable supreme court of India is simply not making any right decision regarding these matters concerning pollution.

If the intention of the SC is to deter buyers from buying these cars with big diesel engines, 1% cess is a joke. 1% on a car costing 25 lakh rupees is a 'mere' 25000 rupees.

Despite many studies, the SC reacts with these illogical bans. How come they never have asked the government to submit a report on their plan to control pollution?

[indivic]

Originally Posted by pugram

. I don't think there is a single working PUC centre in Chennai.

May be OT : Kanchi Emission Testing Centre at Sholinganallur near RTO was working till 2 months ago.

It looks like a hole in the wall outlet, got my 2012 Nano certified there , strangely the emission limits reference was still BS-II standard instead of BS-III/BS-IV

[sourabhzen]

Originally Posted by landcruiser123

If the intention of the SC is to deter buyers from buying these cars with big diesel engines, 1% cess is a joke. 1% on a car costing 25 lakh rupees is a 'mere' 25000 rupees.

In that case Supreme Court already achieved most of its targets.
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/indian...ml#post4009640
People seems to be scared to buy any diesel car now because of their uncertain future.

[Hayek]

This is ridiculous. The Supreme Court is grossly intruding into the realm of parliament and the executive. If they decide tax rates, shouldn't they stand for elections. No taxation without representation.

At any rate, agree that this is tokenism of the worst kind. But am glad Mercedes and Toyota can start selling in Delhi again.

[CoolFire]

The government can use the entire cess amount for setting up advanced mobile pollution checking units and do random checks on roads and vehicles at fuel bunks. This will go a long way in curbing the pollution menace compared to ill advised and baseless dictats. The 10 year rule can also be safely dumped then.

[AutoInt]

It was matter of time before Supreme Court lifted the ban. They eventually have done that. This is good news. 1% cess may be a face saving exercise.

As per this verdict, SC is still convinced that diesel vehicles above 2000 CC are polluting irrespective of whether they are in compliance with the pollution norms set by government or not. This does not sound logical.

Need to wait and and watch as to how this revenue will be utilized to reduce pollution in Delhi. As usual this may not be transparent to the public.