Over four crore vehicles older than 15 years are plying on roads across India and fall under the ambit of green tax, with Karnataka occupying the top slot with more than 70 lakh such vehicles.
According to PTI, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has digitized the data of such vehicles throughout the country, excluding Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Telangana and Lakshadweep as their records were not available. A proposal to levy green tax has already been sent to the states.
The ministry said that the digitized vehicle records are as per the centralized Vahan database that excludes Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Telangana and Lakshadweep. Uttar Pradesh occupies the second spot with 56.54 lakh vehicles, of which 24.55 lakh are older than 20 years. Delhi, the national capital, is at the third place in terms of old and polluting vehicles at 49.93 lakh, of which 35.11 lakh in Tamil Nadu, 25.38 lakh in Punjab and 22.69 lakh in West Bengal. Maharashtra, Odisha, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Haryana have these vehicles in the range of 17.58 lakh and 12.29 lakh.
The number of such vehicles ranges between one lakh and 5.44 lakh for Jharkhand, Uttarkhand, Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh and Puducherry, Assam, Bihar, Goa, Tripura and the union territories of Dadra-Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu. Rest of the states have such old and polluting vehicles below one lakh each, as per the central data.
The government plans to impose a green tax on old vehicles soon in a bid to protect the environment and curb pollution. Vehicles like strong hybrids, electric vehicles and those running on alternate fuels like CNG, ethanol and LPG will be exempted. The revenue collected through the green tax will be utilized for tackling pollution.
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The green tax was approved by Union Minister Nitin Gadkari in January this year. The proposal has been sent to the states for consultation before it is formally notified. Under the scheme, transport vehicles older than eight years could be charged green tax at the time of renewal of fitness certificate at the rate of 10 to 25 per cent of road tax. Personal vehicles will be charged green tax at the time of renewal of registration certificate after 15 years; public transport vehicles, such as city buses, will be levied lower green tax, while higher green tax (50% of road tax) is proposed.
