Supreme Court refuses to defer implementation

The Supreme Court on Friday refused to defer implementation of its order directing collection of environment compensation surcharge from vehicles passing through Delhi till December 1, instead of November 1.

A bench of Chief Justice H.L. Dattu and Justice Amitav Roy while declining to modify the order, issued a notice on the toll contractor’s application and posted the matter for further hearing on November 16, when senior counsel Harish Salve, amicus curiae in the matter, will appear.

Senior counsel Shyam Divan, appearing for the contractor collecting toll tax from vehicles plying into Delhi or crossing the capital, submitted that the firm cannot collect the environment compensation surcharge from November 1 as it has no infrastructure.

The contractor SMYRLLP said the 173 tolls at the border did not have infrastructure to collect the green tax as directed by the top court. The contractor said it will cost about Rs 4 crore to install the infrastructure required for collecting the levy.

It wanted the company to be discharged from this liability as otherwise the firm will be legally liable to collect the tax without any quid pro quo.

The counsel appearing for the Centre and the Delhi government submitted that notification for the collection of levy has been issued on October 20 and any delay on implementation will defeat the purpose for which the collection was sought to be made.

On October 12, the apex court had has slapped an environment compensation surcharge on all light and heavy commercial vehicles and directed the toll agency to collect green tax of Rs 700 to Rs 1,300 from vehicles passing through Delhi.

The court had fixed the charges and said “Category 2 (light vehicles etc.) and Category 3 (2-axle trucks) Rs 700/- (ii) Category 4 (3-axle trucks) and Category 5 (4-axle trucks and above) Rs 1,300 will be charged.”

The issue relates to steps to be taken to check pollution by commercial traffic travelling from North India towards Jaipur and onwards via Delhi. It has been pointed out that even though alternative routes are available for such traffic, only reason for such traffic entering into Delhi is to save higher rate of toll tax in taking such alternative routes. In the process, pollution caused by such traffic inflicts heavy cost on the health of the residents of Delhi.”

It was urged that to tackle this situation a green cess may be required to be imposed on all light and heavy duty commercial vehicles and the amount so collected ought to be exclusively used for augmenting public transport and improving roads, particularly for most vulnerable users, that is, cyclists and pedestrians in Delhi.

According to a study, the commercial vehicles entering Delhi spew close to 30 per cent of the total particulate load and 22 per cent of the total nitrogen oxide load from the transport sector. About 23 per cent of the commercial vehicles and 40-60 per cent of the heavy trucks entering Delhi were not destined for Delhi.”