Supreme Court lifts ban on large diesel vehicles in NCR

The Dollar Business Bureau

The Supreme Court has lifted the ban on registration and sales of diesel vehicles having engine capacity of 2,000 cc and above in the NCR (national capital region) on Friday. However, it has imposed 1% environment cess on the ex-showroom price of these vehicles.

The apex court in the country has given a big relief to the vehicle manufacturers. The eight-month old ban has come to an end at the right time when the dealers start stocking the diesel vehicles for the coming festive season during October-November. Industry welcomes the levy of 1% cess as there were apprehensions of a double-digit cess.

Mahindra and Mahindra is very relieved with the Supreme Court’s decision on Friday. The company hopes that the decision would keep an end to all the controversies around the diesel vehicles. Now, the auto manufacturer would focus on the other significant task to make all their vehicles compliant with Bharat Stage (BS) VI norms by the end of April 2020, M&M Executive Director Pawan Goenka said in a statement.

The ban on diesel vehicles of 2,000 cc and above has been imposed on December 16, 2015 in the NCR. This has affected the sales of many auto makers including M&M, Mercedes Benz, Toyota, and others. The sales of diesel vehicles, particularly models such as Toyota’s Innova and Fortuner and M&M’s XUV500 and Scorpio, were severely hit by this ban.

The share of diesel vehicles has declined significantly to 27% during the period of April-June, 2016 when compared to 52% in the corresponding period four years ago, as per the data provided by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufactures (SIAM).