Trucks entering Delhi to pay pollution tax from Sunday

Legal Correspondent

New Delhi, October 30

Trucks entering Delhi from neighbouring states will have to pay Rs700-Rs1,300 each as pollution tax from November 1 as the Supreme Court today rejected a plea for postponing its introduction by a month.

A Bench comprising Chief Justice HL Dattu and Justice Amitava Roy, however, agreed to hear the plea of a toll contractor on November 16 on the company’s problems in collecting the new tax.

The contractor, SMYRLLP, said it had no infrastructure to collect the new tax, which would be known as “Environment Compensation Charge, at the 173 toll booths it was running for charging the already existing levies.

The Centre and the Delhi government objected to the company’s plea as they had issued the notification on October 20 and any delay in charging the new tax would defeat the purpose of minimising vehicular pollution in the national capital.

The Bench, however, issued notice to the two governments seeking their detailed response to the company’s contentions, but refused to defer implementation of its order for the collection of the tax — Rs700 each per entry for categories 2 (light vehicles) and 3 (2 axle trucks) and Rs 1,300 for categories 4 (3 axle trucks) and 5 (4 axle trucks and above).