Environmentalists have welcomed the government’s tax hike on big cars and SUVs, claiming this will help reduce toxic emissions. But they warn that the government has taken no steps to curb the use of subsidised diesel in private diesel cars.
Anumita Roychowdhury, executive director, research and advocacy, Centre for Science and Environment, warned that urgent steps must be taken to discourage “diesel consumption as also to reduce toxic emissions”, especially since dieselisation is rapidly growing in the small and medium segments which have been left untouched. “The proposed tax hike of two per cent will only affect cars with engine sizes of more than 1500 cc for diesel and 1200 cc for petrol cars. This will not make any difference to the popular models in the small and medium car segments where sales of diesel models is currently as high as 50-75 per cent, especially since, despite the recession, the sales of diesel cars have jumped 34 per cent in 2010,” said Ms Roychowdhury.
Increased diesel consumption will adversely impact health as is being reflected in the spiralling increase of cancer cases which are being caused by increased presence of diesel in the atmosphere.