Cleaner fuel to be available in NCR, Agra from April 2019

New Delhi: BS-VI fuel would be available by April 1, 2019 in 17 out of 23 districts in the National Capital Region (NCR) and Agra, the Centre told the Supreme Court on Tuesday.

The government also said that reducing the price gap between petrol and diesel would not be “economically viable” and would lead to inflation.

Maintaining that it was not possible to change the pricing structure of diesel since the maximum basic excise duty was already levied on it, the Centre told a bench of Justices Madan B. Lokur and Deepak Gupta that a change in this might have other repercussions, besides a “cascading effect” on inflation as the entire transport sector would be affected.

Additional Solicitor General A.N.S. Nadkarni, appearing for the Centre, told the court that as far as 12 other metropolitan cities were concerned, it was not possible to make BS-VI fuel available there by April 1, 2019, but all attempts would be made to make it available there by April 1, 2020.

Advocate Aparajita Singh, who is assisting the court as an amicus curiae, told the bench that compensatory cess levied on diesel vehicles by the apex court has to be re-considered and it might have to be increased.

The court had in August 2016 lifted the ban on registration of diesel vehicles in the Delhi-NCR having an engine capacity of above 2000cc while levying one per cent cess on it.