A working group of experts, set up by the Ministry for Urban development headed by Joint Secretary in the Ministry in charge of Urban Transport S.K. Lohia,suggested to excise duty at the national level and registration costs at the State and city-levels on diesel-powered private vehicles, ban hoardings on pedestrian walkways and cut down the taxes on buses and other public transport vehicles as part of measures to make cities and towns more socially and environmentally sustainable.The panel was formed to work out the parameters for the urban transport segment under the recently launched National Mission on Sustainable Habitat.
It pointed out that increased use of diesel vehicles was only adding to the burden of particulate matter and nitrogen oxides, key pollutants of concerns in Indian cities.On ban on hoardings on pedestrian walkways, the panel pointed out that these were posing major safety hazards. The State and city governments could, instead, earn their revenues by going for advertising on public service amenities such as buses, metro trains, commercial passenger vehicles, bus shelters, metro shelters, public toilets and public garbage facilities.The total tax burden per vehicle km is 2.6 times higher for public transport buses than cars in India.It suggested that the State and city governments could go in for “cascade registration tax” for owning more than one private vehicle and to give pedestrian traffic as much, if not more, importance than other modes of transit.Money collected through the higher levies will help set up an “urban transport fund”.Pune already has such a transport fund. The city’s civic body collects a premium for allowing more floors in housing complexes through a development charge.Delhi is the only example of a state that charges cess on fuel for a dedicated fund on pollution control.
Today in History
| 28-September-1965 | India-Pakistan hostility erupts into a war |
| 28-September-1940 | Pundit Sunder Lal Sharma, freedom fighter and social reformer, passed away. He was also known as "The Chhattisgarh Gandhi" |
