The Supreme Court on Friday lifted the ban imposed in December last on registration of SUVs and diesel cars with engine capacity of 2,000cc and above in the national capital region on the manufacturers/dealers paying a one time environment compensation charge (ECC) of one per cent on the show room value of the vehicles.
A three-judge bench of Chief Justice T.S. Thakur and Justices A.K. Sikri and R. Banumathi passed this order after hearing senior counsel Gopal Subramanium, Mohan Parasaran, Vishwanath Shetty, Gopal Jain, Abhishek Singhvi and others, appearing for Mercedes and Toyota, for voluntarily paying the one per cent cess for allowing registration. Solicitor-general Ranjit Kumar submitted to the court that since cess being a tax, it cannot be levied by the court as it is the fiscal policy of the government.
The bench, while recording the submissions of the SG, asked the Central Pollution Control Board to open an account in public sector banks to receive the environment compensation charge from manufacturers/dealers of these vehicles.
The bench made it clear that the transport authority would register a big diesel car or SUV only if receipt of payment of the green levy is shown.
The apex court said it will also decide later whether the rate of ECC on big diesel cars should be more than 1% of ex-showroom price of the vehicle and the issue of whether smaller diesel cars too should be brought under the purview of payment of ECC.
The Centre supported the stand of car manufacturers and had submitted that the pollution caused by diesel vehicles of 2,000cc and above is less compared to even petrol cars.
It said the emission norms for particulate matter in respect of diesel vehicle in general, including that of above 2,000 cc, has considerably improved over a period of time from 0.25 gm/km to 0.06 gm/km.
It also said that a draft policy to replace vehicles which are more than 10 years will be put in place by 2017 when car owners can surrender their vehicles and get a value for the scrap, may be Rs 50,000 or more.
