The Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways has approved a proposal to levy a ‘green tax’ on old vehicles.

Do read about Green Mobility, India’s FAME-I and II Scheme.

Green Tax

• Personal vehicles will be charged a tax at the time of renewal of Registration Certification after 15 years.
• The policy will come into effect from April 1, 2022.
• The levy may differ depending on fuel (petrol/diesel) and type of vehicle.
• The proposal will now go to the States for consultation before it is formally notified.
• It includes 10-25% of road tax on transport vehicles older than eight years at the time of renewal of fitness certificate.
• The proposal on green tax also includes a steeper penalty of up to 50% of road tax for older vehicles registered in some of the highly polluted cities in the country.
• Revenue collected from this tax will be kept in a separate account and will be used for tackling pollution, and for States to set up state-of-art facilities for emission monitoring.

Why such a move?

• To dissuade people from using vehicles which damage the environment
• To motivate people to switch to newer, less polluting vehicles
• Green tax will reduce the pollution level, and make the polluter pay for pollution

Exemptions to this tax

• Vehicles like strong hybrids, electric vehicles and alternate fuels like CNG, ethanol, LPG etc to be exempted;
• Vehicles used in farming, such as tractor, harvester, tiller etc to be exempted;

Other proposals

• The Ministry also approved a watered-down policy of deregistration and scrapping of vehicles, bringing only those vehicles owned by government departments and PSUs and are older than 15 years under its ambit.
• In 2016, the Centre had floated a draft Voluntary Vehicle Fleet Modernization Programme that aimed to take 28 million decade-old vehicles off the road.

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