SC favours environmental cess on commercial vehicles entering Delhi
The Supreme Court on Friday indicated that it will impose an environment compensatory charge (ECC) ranging from Rs.700 to Rs.1,300 on commercial vehicles entering Delhi as a transit route for their onward journey. The apex court bench of Chief Justice H.L. Dattu, Justice Arun Mishra and Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel, while giving this indication, reserved order to be pronounced on Monday (October 12). However, if was clarified that commercial vehicles carrying essential commodities, food stuff and passengers and emergency vehicles, including ambulances, would be exempted from the environment cess. The imposition of ECC would be for four months on an experimental basis and the money collected would go to the Delhi government. The Delhi government told the court that it would issue a notification in this regard after a formal order was passed by the apex court. The Delhi government also told the court that it would give wide publicity to the directions of the court.
