Environment Cess

The Supreme Court has withdrawn a decade-old exemption for commercial vehicles carrying essential commodities from paying the Environment Compensation Cess (ECC) before entering Delhi. A bench comprising Chief Justice of India (CJI) B R Gavai and Justices K Vinod Chandran and N V Anjaria passed the order on September 26, which was made public recently. The court held that the earlier exemption, granted in October 2015, was creating "genuine operational difficulties" and undermining the purpose of the levy. The bench allowed the application of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), seeking the removal of "the exemption granted to commercial vehicles carrying Essential Commodities viz. Vegetables, Fruits, Milk, Grains, Egg., Ice (to be used as food item), Poultry Items...laden vehicles from ECC in pursuance to this courts order dated 09.10.2015". The civic body submitted that on account of the exemption granted by this court, serious difficulties are faced as vehicles are required

The government has come out with the draft Green Credit Programme Implementation Rules 2023 for incentivising voluntary environmental actions of various stakeholders. According to a notification issued by the Environment Ministry, the Green Credit programme encourages private sector industries and companies as well as other entities to meet their existing obligations, stemming from other legal frameworks, by taking actions which are able to converge with activities relevant for generating or buying Green Credits. The main objectives of the Green Credit Programme are to create a market based mechanism for providing incentives in the form of Green Credits to individuals, farmer producer organisations, cooperatives, forestry enterprises, sustainable agriculture enterprises, urban and rural local bodies, private sectors, industries and organisations for environment positive actions. The programme also envisages to create a mass movement around environment positive actions and realise th

The question of designing and imposing environmental taxes with specific objectives remains challenging due to the complexities involved

The Delhi government has spent only 21 per cent of the Rs 1,298 crore collected as environment compensation charge from diesel-guzzling trucks entering the capital in the last six years

The green fund was to be used for the improvement of public transport system and cleaning and repairing roads

Doubling of clean energy cess to further squeeze margins of domestic aluminium companies