Civic agencies told to collect green tax

After no collection of green tax from trucks on Sunday, the state Transport Department sent a stern message to the BJP-ruled civic agencies to start collecting the environment compensation charge immediately or face the music in the Supreme Court.

The collection of the Supreme Court-mandated Environment Compensation Charge (ECC) from polluting trucks entering the city did not start on Sunday – the first day as mandated by the court – due to the civic agency’s contractor expressing shortage of manpower and resources.

“There is no alternative to collecting the Supreme Court-ordered congestion tax,” said an official from the department, adding this message has been conveyed to the municipal corporations.

A discussion was held in the Transport Department over a letter written by the civic agencies’ toll tax collection contractor SMYR Consortium expressing its inability to collect the green tax.

The letter written to the civic agencies by the contractor was sent to the Transport Department by the south corporation.

“We have told the civic agencies to ensure that the Supreme Court directions on tax collection are followed,” said a Delhi government official.

According to the Delhi-government notification, large trucks are supposed to pay Rs 1,300 as the ECC. Smaller commercial vehicles are supposed to pay Rs 700 per entry. The money so collected would be spent on improving the environment in the city.

The issue of non-collection of ECC was also raised during a meeting held by Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia with top officials, sources said.

 The civic agencies do not have their staff or resources to collect the ECC. It has to be collected by the consortium and the civic agency needs to modify its contract with concessionaire.

The ECC is to be collected from commercial vehicles entering the city from 127 entry points. 

The consortium, which mans 125 entry points, was supposed to start ECC collection  from midnight of October 31.

On Friday, the Supreme Court refused to postpone the date for the start of ECC collection from November 1 to December 1, despite SMYR consortium’s request to do so.
SMYR consortium collects toll on behalf of three of Delhi’s civic bodies on 125 entry point except for Badarpur and Noida toll.

Around 50,000 diesel trucks enter the city daily from the 127 entry points and about a third of these do not carry goods for the city but use its roads for shortcuts to other cities.

As the toll tax collection contractor has expressed limitations in implementing the Supreme Court order, there is strong possibility that the consortium may also fail to will put in place Radio Frequency Identification system at its their own cost at nine main entry points in the capital by November 30.