In a bid to control pollution and preserve the environment, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) is planning to impose a 'GREEN TAX' on old polluting vehicles. As per the central govt, the green tax will discourage people from using older polluting vehicles and prompt them to shift to less polluting new or electric vehicles.
The proposal will now go to the states for discussion before it is formally declared. The revenue collected through the green tax will be used for tackling pollution.
Also Read: IRDAI Suggests Higher Insurance Premium For Traffic Violators
According to the draft proposal, the states will be required to set up state-of-art facilities for emission monitoring. The amount of green tax will differ from the vehicle type. For the transport vehicles older than eight years could be charged green tax at the rate of 10-25% of road tax at the time of renewal of fitness certificate, whereas public transports such as city buses would be charged lower. The passenger vehicles, on the other hand, would be charged at the time of renewal of registration certification after 15 years. The green tax could be as higher as 50% of the total road tax for vehicles being registered in highly polluted cities like Delhi NCR. However, the tax amount may also vary depending on the type of fuel (petrol/ diesel), and the vehicle category.
Besides this, vehicles like electric vehicles, strong hybrids vehicles, and those operating on alternate fuels like CNG, ethanol, and LPG will be exempted from this tax.