Green Tax on vehicles older than 8 years
Green Tax
The Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways has levied a “Green Tax”
It is a tax to protect Environment.
The tax will be levied on old vehicles which are polluting the environment.
- Revenue collected from the Green Tax to be kept in a separate account
- It will be used for tackling pollution.
- To set up state of-art facilities for emission monitoring.
Details about Green Tax
- Tax will be on transport vehicles older than eight years at the time of renewal of fitness certificate at the rate of 10% to 25% of road tax.
- Policy of de-registration and scrapping of vehicles owned by Government department and PSU, which are above 15 years in age.
- Personal vehicles are proposed to 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.
- Higher green tax (50% of road tax) will be levied on vehicles being registered in highly polluted cities.
- Differential tax will also be charged depending on fuel (petrol/ diesel) and the type of vehicle.
Need for Green Tax
- It is estimated that commercial vehicles, which constitute about 5% of the total vehicle fleet, contribute about 65-70% of total vehicular pollution.
- The older fleet, typically manufactured before the year 2000 constitute less that 1 % of the total fleet but contributes around 15% of total vehicular pollution.
- These older vehicles pollute 10-25 times more than modern vehicles.
- In Accordance with “Polluter Pays Principle”: It is the commonly accepted practice that those who produce pollution should bear the costs of managing it to prevent damage to human health or the environment.
- Polluter Pays Principle is part of the 1992 Rio Declaration which gives broader principles to guide sustainable development worldwide.
- In order to mitigate the condition and reduce the GHG emissions, one smart approach is pricing Carbon such as introduction of Green tax.
Tag:Economy, Government Budegeting, UPSC
