Tuesday, January 26, 2021
By Manoj Kumawat
Green Tax On The Old Vehicles To Be Charged Soon By The Government
It is reported that the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways might impose the Green Tax on the older vehicles to control the problem of increasing pollution. According to reports the Union Minister of Road Transport and Highway, Honorable Nitin Gadkari has given a green signal to the proposal for imposing the “Green Tax” on the old vehicles. It is believed that doing will help in cleaning the environment by stopping the use of unfit and polluting vehicles. The revenue collected from these vehicles will be used to combat the problem of pollution. Before the final implementation, the draft of the proposal will be sent to all states for suggestions. The main objective of introducing this tax is to encourage the people from stopping the use of old polluting vehicles and motivate them for buying the new vehicles which do not pollute the environment. The cars which are more than 15 years old and being used by the Government Departments and PSUs will be sent for scrapped and de-registered. The scrap policy for the fifteen years old vehicles is believed to be implemented from April 1, 2022.
Speaking about the proposal made by the Transport Ministry regarding the Green Tax, it proposed that the vehicles which are eight years old will have to pay this at the time of renewing their fitness certificate. The amount of tax can be between 10 per cent and 25 per cent of the road tax. For the vehicles owned by the individuals, the tax will be charged after 15 years at the time of renewing their fitness certificate. The tax could be increased up to 50% of the road tax in cities where the rate of pollution is very high.
The proposal further states the slab to tax will be charged keeping in consideration the type of vehicle and the usage of fuel. The running on electric, hybrid, CNG, LPG, and Ethanol will be exempted from the tax. Similarly, vehicles like tractors, harvesters, tillers, etc, are reported to be exempted from the tax.
According to the sources of government, the commercial vehicle which counts 5 per cent of the total vehicles on the road develops 65% to 70% of the overall pollution from the vehicles. Similarly, the vehicles that are manufactured before 2000 are 1% of the total vehicles and contribute 15% of the overall pollution. The older vehicles pollute 10% to 25% pollution than compared to the newly launched vehicles. Going through this reason the government intends to levy the Green Tax.
