[dadu]

TOI, Bangalore, June 16, 2007

In line with the strict roadmap for vehicle emission control norms recommended by R A Mashelkar committee, the government will soon notify Bharat Stage IV norms for fuel companies and automobile manufacturers. BS IV Norms are expected to be implemented preferably by April 1, 2008, but before April 1, 2010.

The road transport and highways ministry is in the final stages of notifying the emission norms which will apply to 11 mega cities : the four metros, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Kanpur, Pune, Surat and Agra. Ministry official said that simultaneously BSIII norms will be notified in the rest of the country.

"Manufacturers will have to comply with the new norms to get type approvals. This will include all vehicles manufactured on the after April 1, 2010." a senior official said.

[dinar]

This move towards clean future is good,as new tech is implemented by car companies and pave the way for different [clean] fuels and sometimes good for petrol heads as these fuels have good side effects .......MORE POWER as in case of ethanol.

[dadu]

very true this will force the manufacturers to adopt newer and better technologies for engines leading to an efficient fuel consumption.

[leodelg]

It's a good move, but will it be effective? Petrol vehicles with BSIII don't pollute that much. In fact, compared to the buses, trucks, autos, etc, these vehicles have negligible levels of emission. We have to first find out a way to ensure that pollution by the current vehicles on the road are minimized.

[dadu]

its a process of a gradual phase out, like they said BSIII in rest of INDIA and BSIV in these 11 cities. Just like we no longer see many Fiat/Amby on the roads now, the older vehicles will die down gradually.

[wizardofid]

By 2008 April they should start a taxation system for vehicles based on these parameters
1. Size : they already have this in a sloppy manner i.e. "less than 3800mm length". Length should be no more a consideration than width. Wider cars slow down traffic (the bottleneck measure is in the final analysis is width in traffic)
2. Fuel Efficiency by design: Today the Tata Indica Xeta and some other smaller petrol cars benefit from the excise reduction based on cylinder capacity and car length. The Xeta, just as a case, turns in a lower FE than some of the sedans. A more robust and logical system would be to reduce taxes from a nominal value for cars that demonstrate a better than baseline figure with changes or becomes more stringent year after year (2007/08/09 and so on), and increase taxes for those that are less fuel efficient based on the distance of the figure-under-test from the baseline.
This will push manufacturers towards bringing some seriously fuel efficient vehicles.

There are some silly moves currently towards taxing your family's second private car every year. This is sillier still when you consider that the govt already taxes you significantly everytime you visit the petrol pump. Maybe a better thing to do is to initiate carbon trading and carbon offsets. You should be only allowed so many carbon points in a year which dictates the amount of fuel you can purchase based on the car you own (BSIV Vs BSIII). You can exceed your limit, but only by purchasing carbon points from someone who owns another private car but does not drive as much. This incentivises working from home, instant car pooling, etc and would ease the traffic burden significantly.

[dadu]

OT: I am afraid if you look at the taxes, they are so unrealistic and outdated in todays time and age, infact many of our laws and tax rules are dated even before the british rule, but noone want to change/ bring reform because they earn good revenue for the government and loopholes allows the politicians and govt servants to exploit them for their own.

I find it very funny when the finance minister is trying to automate and close gaps in the income tax collection by computerizing them.(although its a good step holistically).

But what about tracking the govt spends and updating those laws. for eg govt collected 100Rs but due to babugiri only 40 Rs went to the end public/development work, now even if you collect 150Rs and 100rs goes into babugiri, what are you trying to achieve ??

[theMAG]

I'm all for making emission norms stringent as possible. If there's an extra cost associated by a manufacturer towards meeting these, then I'd willingly pay this small price to protect whats left of our environment.

[wizardofid]

Originally Posted by theMAG

If there's an extra cost associated by a manufacturer towards meeting these, then I'd willingly pay this small price to protect whats left of our environment.

There doesn't have to be. Most manufacturers just need to re-spin their current focus away from making cars bigger and faster, to making them bigger and at least as fast, and much more fuel efficient. What would actually help right now is if none of us drove our cars, but how many are willing to give up on a major pleasure source.

For anyone remotely concerned about your fat-warming-footprint or ethical living, you might find these links useful
BBC NEWS | Programmes | Newsnight | Ethical Man
BBC NEWS | Talk about Newsnight | A blog and forum
Or for calculating your carbon footprint, once you get past the units
Carbon Pollution Calculator