Centre for Science and Environment has gone nuts

[Sushubh]

The Centre for Science and Environment today demanded an additional duty of up to Rs 1.62 lakh on big diesel cars to prevent the misuse of subsidised fuel for luxury.

"Any car is a luxury. A car owner should not enjoy any subsidy. There should be additional duty on diesel cars to equalise the subsidy benefits given on diesel and petrol," CSE Executive Director (Research and Advocacy) and Head (Air Pollution and Urban Mobility) Anumita Roychowdhury said.

She said the recommendations of the Planning Commission's Kirit Parikh Committee of an additional Rs 81,000 equaliser excise tax for small cars with engines of less than 1,400 cc should be implemented in the Budget for 2012-13.

CSE calls for Rs 1.62 lakh extra tax on big diesel cars — economictimes.indiatimes.com — Readability

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They may be branded as villains by the environmental lobby, but personal cars consume a paltry 0.6% of the diesel consumed in the country, an internal Planning Commission note said.

Personal cars account for 0.6% of India's diesel consumption — timesofindia.indiatimes.com — Readability

Adding this for folks who would say that they are right.

 

[Sushubh]

S Jaipal Reddy does the same. Asks for Rs. 80,000 surcharge on diesel cars.

But recent developments have changed the circumstances. On Wednesday, Reddy admitted that political compulsions and the fear of across-the-board price rise has prevented the government from raising diesel price. This has created a differential of about 30% between diesel and petrol, tilting the balance in favour of diesel vehicles that now account for 40% of all car sales.


Jaipal Reddy wants Rs 80,000 additional tax on diesel cars — timesofindia.indiatimes.com — Readability

so basically... they need to save their political ass and for that they are asking a small segment of the indian car buyers to pay the price.

 

[Sushubh]

S Jaipal Reddy does the same. Asks for Rs. 80,000 surcharge on diesel cars.

But recent developments have changed the circumstances. On Wednesday, Reddy admitted that political compulsions and the fear of across-the-board price rise has prevented the government from raising diesel price. This has created a differential of about 30% between diesel and petrol, tilting the balance in favour of diesel vehicles that now account for 40% of all car sales.


Jaipal Reddy wants Rs 80,000 additional tax on diesel cars — timesofindia.indiatimes.com — Readability

so basically... they need to save their political ass and for that they are asking a small segment of the indian car buyers to pay the price.

 

[Sushubh]

Goenka said even the expert committee report headed by Kirit Parikh, which had earlier claimed 15 per cent of diesel fuel is used for personal diesel vehicles, has corrected the figures.

"This report had some erroneous data and Parikh himself has recently said that such a tax is not justified. Unfortunately, those who support a diesel vehicle tax are still quoting the data from Dr Parikh's report," he said.

It has been calculated that the use of diesel fuel for personal vehicles is only about 2 per cent of total diesel consumption, he added.

Refuting allegations that subsidised diesel fuel is benefiting the affluent, Goenka said: "The fact is that even within the very small per centage of use of diesel fuel for personal vehicle, a small fraction, less than 10 per cent is used for luxury vehicles. Thus, the use of diesel fuel for luxury personal vehicles is less than 0.2 per cent."

As per a study conducted by Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) out of a total of 61.68 million tonnes of diesel consumed in India across various sectors during 2010-11, diesel personal cars consumed only 1.03 per cent, while for diesel taxi segment it was at 1.82 per cent.

Additional tax on diesel cars will be a retrograde step — economictimes.indiatimes.com — Readability