Supreme Court open to lifting ban on diesel vehicles in Delhi-NCR, calls for one-time green cess

The Supreme Court yesterday said that it is open to lifting the ban on the registration of diesel-engined passenger cars and SUVs of 2000cc and above in the Delhi-NCR region, subject to the levy of a one-time environment cess. This information is as per a PTI new report.  

"We are inclined to allow registration. We are open to the registration subject to some kind of one-time cess," a bench comprising Chief Justice T S Thakur and Justices A K Sikri and R Banumathi said.

The apex court had on December 16, 2015, announced a number of measures aimed at curbing rising pollution levels in Delhi and NCR. This included a ban on the registration of diesel-run SUVs and cars with engine capacity of 2000cc and above till March 31, 2016. Subsequently, the ban on registration was extended till further orders.

During the hearing, the bench asked a battery of senior lawyers including Gopal Subramanium and Gopal Jain, appearing for Indian automobile majors, to explore the possibility of the levy of a green cess at the time of registration of diesel cars and SUVs.

Toyota Kirloskar Motor, though, has been an exception and on June 23, opened a brand new Rs 1,100 crore diesel engine manufacturing plant in Bangalore. The state-of—the-art facility, set up by Toyota Industries Engine India (TIEI), a JV between Kirloskar Systems Ltd (KSL) and Toyota Industries Corporation, Japan (TICO), will manufacture high-performance Global Diesel (GD) engines – 1GD-FTV 2.8-litre and 2GD-FTV – 2.4-litre engines – which are claimed to be more fuel efficient *+13%) and more powerful too (+47%), for fitment in the Innova Crysta MPV.