By IANS,
New Delhi : The government Monday reduced duties on large cars while unveiling the 2009-10 budget proposals. A leading NGO said this would increase air pollution in a big way.
In his budget speech at parliament, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee reduced a “component” added to the 24 percent ad valorem duty on large cars and utility vehicles (SUV).
The “component”, introduced in June last year, had been Rs.15,000 per car with engine capacity below 2,000 cc, and Rs.20,000 for each car with larger engine capacity. Now the finance minister has brought down the “component” on the larger cars and SUVs to Rs.15,000 too.
Mukherjee’s move was slammed by Sunita Narain, director of the Centre for Science and Environment, who said this would “give a fillip to SUVs that pollute the air far worse than smaller cars do”.
The government has also reduced the excise duty on petrol driven trucks from 20 percent to 8 percent “to equate the duty with similar vehicles run on diesel”, as Mukherjee put it in his budget speech.