GREEN TAX APPROVAL

To dissuade people from using vehicles that damage the environment, reduce the pollution level, and make the polluter pay for pollution, the Union Minister for Road Transport & Highways, on January 25, 2021, has approved a levy proposal, “Green Tax.” 

According to the Ministry’s estimates in the press release, “Commercial vehicles that constitute about 5% of the total vehicle fleet, contribute about 65-70% of total vehicular pollution”. The Ministry said that “The older fleet, typically manufactured before the year 2000, constitutes less than 1 % of the total fleet but contributes around 15% of total vehicular pollution. These older vehicles pollute 10-25 times more than modern vehicles.”

As per the policy at the time of : 

• Renewal of Fitness certificate, owners of transport vehicles (commercial vehicles) older than eight years will have to pay green tax at the rate of 10 to 25% of road tax 

• Renewal of Registration Certificate after 15 years, owners of personal vehicles will be required to pay Green Tax 

Thus, the owners of more than 8 years old commercial vehicles upon renewal of fitness certificate will have to pay green tax every year whereas owners of more than 15 years old personal vehicles will have to pay green tax after every 5 years upon renewal of Registration Certificate. 

On the other hand, the lower Green tax will be applicable to public transport vehicles such as city buses. A higher Green Tax that can range up to 50% of Road Tax would be applicable for vehicles being registered in cities with high levels of pollution. However, the amount of tax would be different, and the same would be decided based on fuel (petrol or diesel) and the type of vehicle (commercial or private). 

EXEMPTION

The policy exempts vehicles such as strong hybrids, electric vehicles, and alternate fuels like CNG, ethanol, LPG, and vehicles used in farming, such as tractors, harvester, tiller, from its ambit. Revenue that would be collected by levying this tax would be kept in a separate account to tackle pollution and set up the state of the art facilities for emission monitoring. 

2015 NGT ORDER

The imposition of Green Tax however overrides the 2015 order of the National Green Tribunal as per which petrol cars older than 15 years and diesel cars older than 10 years could not ply in Delhi-NCR which came into effect a few years ago after the bench led by Justice Madan B Lokur of the Supreme Court on October 29, 2018, set aside a plea to change NGT’s order. 

Before making a formal notification of the same, the proposal will be circulated to the states for consultation. Not only this, but the Minister has also approved a policy that would come into effect from April 1, 2022, for deregistering and scrapping the vehicles owned by Government departments and PSU’s that are above 15 years in age.

 
AUTHOR
SHRUTI KAKKAR
Senior Intern, Indian Law Watch
Shruti is BA LL.B from Guru Gobind Singh University pass out. She has been in top three winner positions in several reputed competitions of law.She is presently pursuing the Higher studies.

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