The Supreme Court of India on August 12, 2016 has lifted the ban on diesel vehicles with engine capacities of 2000cc and above but has asked affected car makers to deposit one per cent of ex-showroom price as green cess. In fact, a few days back leading luxury car manufacturer Mercedes-Benz India had moved the Supreme Court asking for the ban on diesel vehicles to be lifted. The German car manufacturing firm had said it was ready to pay the environmental cess of 1% levied on the sale of diesel cars. Mercedes was among several other car companies severely affected by this ban.
“We have followed the earlier direction of the Supreme Court and filed an Interim Application seeking relief on the ban on our cars. Following the court suggestion, we as a voluntary interim measure, offered to pay 1% of the ex-showroom price of the vehicle towards anticipated Environment Compensation Charge as a deposit, and not on the premise that our vehicles are polluting the environment. We reiterate that, being the pioneers of numerous technological innovations, Mercedes-Benz has the technology available and can switch our entire fleet to BS VI by 2018, however, we need compatible fuel to do so, to provide our customers with the latest technologies which are available worldwide. We welcome the government’s decision to pre-pone mandatory BS VI to 2020. We think the introduction of BS VI fuel is the best viable option to curb pollution. Mercedes-Benz India is waiting for compatible fuel quality and as soon as the required diesel fuel is made available we are ready to switch our portfolio quickly to the EU 6 standard,” Mercedes-Benz India said in a statement.
“We are very relieved with the decision of the Honourable Supreme Court today. Hope this decision will put all controversy surrounding diesel fuel behind us and we will be able to focus on the more important task of making our vehicles compliant with BS 6 norms by April 2020”, said Mahindra & Mahindra in a statement.
The Supreme Court took this decision to lift the ban after hearing the Mercedes plea. The apex court had banned the use of big diesel vehicles in order to tackle air pollution in the NCR. The ban had been imposed sometime in the middle of December 2015, after the National Green Tribunal had first banned the diesel vehicles. The NGT later went on to ban such vehicles even from certain cities and towns of Kerala.
The Centre through the Attorney General of India had told the apex court that its decision to ban diesel cars will cost the large number of people employed in the automobile industry their jobs, and the industry as a whole was against the inconsistent policy. Companies like Toyota went on record to say that they had put hold further investments in the country. Toyota too was keen to pay up the 1pc cess in order for the ban to be lifted. Many car makers like Mahindra & Mahindra and Toyota had begun offering their popular diesel vehicles with new petrol engines.
The Supreme Court has now stated that the one per cent green cess has to be deposited before Central Pollution Control Board which will open a separate account in a PSU bank. It also noted that it would decide later whether green cess can be levied on diesel vehicles with engine capacities below 2000cc.
The latest Supreme Court decision could pave way for lifting of similar bans in other parts of the country, industry experts hoped.
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