NITI Aayog Proposes Penalty of Rs 12,000 on Polluting Vehicles

NITI Aayog is making use of the ‘polluter pays’ principle to justify this levy of Rs 12,000 on every new purchase of petrol and diesel vehicles.

With a motive of raising funds for incentivising electric vehicles, the government is mulling imposing a fee on the purchase of new petrol and diesel cars.

The government is making use of the ‘polluter pays’ principle to justify this levy of Rs 12,000 on every new purchase of petrol and diesel vehicles.

Post meeting, top secretaries of NITI Aayog have prepared a note which proposes incentives of up to Rs 25,000-50,000 for those buying electric two, three and four wheeler vehicles.

The note has proposed a direct benefit transfer to the buyer and for state agencies operating e-buses, the draft has proposed kilometre based incentives.

This surcharge on polluting cars will have a yearly increment and by the fourth year, the surcharge will rise to a whopping Rs 70,000. With this surcharge the government is planning to ramp up funds of up to Rs 43,000 crore which will be used to provide sops for EV buyers.

The surcharge is proposed not just for passenger vehicles, but commercial vehicles will also attract a hefty fine.

A part of this fund, which will be managed by Heavy Industries department, will also be used to encourage domestic battery production with an incentive of Rs 6,000 per kilowatt hour.

The incentives offered on EVs will be gradually reduced from Rs 50,000 to Rs 15,000 by the fourth year.

Source: TNN