SC allows over 2000cc diesel vehicles in Delhi, imposes 1% new tax

The Supreme Court has announced that the above 2000cc diesel vehicles allowed in Delhi and NCR from 12^th August 2016 while the automakers to pay 1 percent green cess. The SC has been passed the order of heavy diesel vehicles ban in Delhi in December 2016 due to reducing the emission levels. With this verdict, the automakers, Mahindra & Mahindra, Toyota Motor Corp, Tata Motors and the luxury carmaker, Mercedes-Benz affected majorly in the domestic market.

Related: Supreme Court Temporarily Bans Registration of Diesel Vehicles in Delhi

Earlier, the companies argued with the SC regarding the decision and explained how their sales and the total diesel vehicle segment impacted in the market. The SC’s order was continued around 8 to 9 months and the automakers have chosen alternatives to overcome the situation. Now, the decision on the allowing of heavy diesel vehicles with the over 2000cc engines is the good news for the automakers as well as the automotive industry. Whereas the automakers to pay 1 percent tax as environment cess, which is calculated based on the ex-showroom price tag of heavy diesel cars powered by over 2.0-litre engines.

Related: Supreme Court extends registration ban on heavy diesel vehicles

The Japanese automaker, Toyota has lost around Rs. 1,700 crores of business in India with the result of the ban. Very recently, Toyota has launched the petrol versions of the Innova in the Indian market to boost up the sales. Similarly, Mahindra has introduced the affected cars (XUV 500 and Scorpio) with the downsized engines in Delhi and Mercedes-Benz has planned to launch the petrol versions of all its Indian-specific cars by September 2016.

The lifting of heavy diesel vehicle’s ban in Delhi and NCR region is the great move as this verdict alone will not reduce the emission levels in the air. We need to focus on several holistic solutions to address the emission issue, according to Abdul Majeed, partner, Price Waterhouse.

Related: NGT bans 10 years old diesel vehicles in Kerala

We are very relieved with the lifting of the ban and consider the several important tasks in introducing the diesel vehicles with BS6 emission norms by April 2020, according to Dr Pawan Goenka, president of Mahindra Automotive Division.

Source: Automotive