German luxury carmaker Mercedes-Benz on Monday requested the Supreme Court to lift its ban on registration of diesel vehicles with engines of 2,000 cc and above, saying it is ready to pay the 1% environment cess on sale of its diesel cars and would deposit the same with the apex court.
A bench headed by Chief Justice TS Thakur posted the matter for hearing on Friday. It had earlier said big diesel cars and SUVs were prima facie polluting.
Seeking relaxation of the ban, senior advocate Mohan Parasaran appearing for Mercedes told the bench that the carmaker was willing to pay 1% of the ex-showroom price of these cars as green cess on being permitted to resume sales in the NCR. Toyota too, had made a similar proposal on the green levy.
More than a month ago, the SC had reserved its order on permitting sale of diesel vehicles with engine capacity of 2000 cc or more in the NCR after amicus curiae Aparajita Singh had sought imposition of green cess on big diesel cars and SUVs.
Though the amicus curiae had proposed 20-25% cost of the vehicle as green levy, manufacturers across the board are willing to pay only 1% cost of vehicle as levy.
Supporting the car manufacturers’ plea for relaxing the ban on the sale of such cars in the NCR, the central government had argued that the allegations that “diesel is the devil” and big diesel cars should be discouraged were wrong.
The apex court had on December 16 last year banned registration of diesel-run SUVs and cars having engine capacity beyond 2000 cc in the NCR in an attempt to curb the alarming rise in pollution levels in the city. It said larger-engined vehicles and SUVs are mostly driven by the “more affluent sections of our society” and contribute “higher levels of pollution”.
The court had also ordered that light duty vehicles would have to pay R1,400 and three-axle vehicles Rs 2,600 to enter Delhi in addition to the toll tax from November 1 last year as the environment compensation charge (ECC) in a bid to check high pollution levels in the city.