The government of India has proposed a policy to impose green tax on old polluting vehicles soon in a bid to protect environment by curbing pollution.
As per the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, the vehicles like strong hybrids, electric vehicles and those running on alternate fuels like CNG, ethanol and LPG will be exempted while the revenue collected through the green tax will be utilised for tackling pollution.
Under the scheme, vehicles older than eight years could be charged green tax at the time of renewal of fitness certificate at the rate of 10 to 25 per cent of road tax.
Personal vehicles would be charged green tax at the time of renewal of registration certification after 15 years; public transport vehicles, such as city buses, will be charged lower green tax while higher green tax (50 per cent of road tax) is proposed for vehicles being registered in highly polluted cities.
What transpires from the scheme is that focus is on penal taxation to persuade owners to scrap their old vehicles. Unlike in some countries, there is no cash-for-trade-in arrangement. For the scheme to work efficiently, the extra tax proposed should exceed the resale value of the polluting motor, making its disposal more attractive. There need to be enough safeguards to ensure that it is indeed scrapped and recycled under a monitored system.
The proposal is being sent to states and UTs. The Jammu and Kashmir would be among the first to start it and as such needs to set up state-of-art facilities for emission monitoring.
The proposal comes days after the J&K government ordered full exemption of certain categories of vehicles, from road/token tax.
The Transport department ordered exemption of agriculture tractors and power tillers with an engine emission up to 3000 cc capacity, all electric vehicles and motorized tricycles for specially-abled persons.
Seen together, the purposed tax as well as the exemption by the local administration will dissuade people from using vehicles which damage the environment and motivate them to switch to newer, less polluting vehicles. There is a need to have plans together to eliminate polluting fuel guzzlers. All governments need to see the value of operationalising it as planned. While the green tax will reduce the pollution level, and make the polluter pay for pollution, cleaner fuels should help clear the toxic air in cities and towns.
