[sustran] Re: India's Planning Commission working group suggests 'urban transport tax' on purchase/ use of private vehicles - so does Hanoi

[Cornie Huizenga]

Dear Pooja and others,

Interesting. I just came across a similar proposal for Hanoi (
http://english.vietnamnet.vn/en/society/15731/hanoi-wants-to-increase-car-registration-fee-by-10-times.html).
It is interesting that the rationale is almost identical for both India and
Viet Nam

*Viet Nam*: "Hanoi administration wants to raise registration fee to curb
the growth of personal vehicles, to reduce traffic jams, to increase budget
revenue to invest in public transport projects.

*India*: "The recommendations, which are guided by the "polluter pays
principle", aim to discourage use of private vehicles by imposing higher
taxes and also help generate resources to fund public transport projects."

It would be interesting to hear of other cities in Asia, Africa and Latin
America who have similar plans.

Cornie

On Thu, Dec 15, 2011 at 6:12 PM, Pooja Sanghani <pooja.sanghani at itdp.org>wrote:

> source:
>
> http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Now-a-green-cess-on-petrol-cars/articleshow/11099730.cms
>
> NEW DELHI: Buying and running cars and two-wheelers could soon become a
> costly affair with a Planning Commission working group suggesting a green
> surcharge of Rs 2 on every litre of petrol, a green cess of 3% of the
> annual insured value of all private vehicles and a steep urban transport
> tax to be collected at the time of purchase of private vehicles.
> The panel, headed by Delhi Metro chief E Sreedharan, has suggested urban
> transport tax on purchase of new cars and two-wheelers at 7.5% of the total
> cost of petrol vehicles and 20% in case of personal diesel cars.
> The recommendations, which are guided by the "polluter pays principle", aim
> to discourage use of private vehicles by imposing higher taxes and also
> help generate resources to fund public transport projects.
> It is estimated that the new surcharge and taxes will help the government
> generate Rs 235,741 crore in the 12th five-year plan (2012-17) and Rs
> 22,40,804 crore over 20 years.
> It was decided not to impose the green surcharge on diesel considering the
> fuel's multiple uses and the problems in dual pricing. However, this was
> offset with the higher urban transport tax on new diesel cars at 20%
> compared to 7.5% for petrol-driven variants.
> The annual green cess of 3% is proposed to be collected through insurance
> companies. These firms, which collect around 4% of the insured value of the
> vehicle as annual premium, will now collect 7% and pass on the additional
> 3% to the government.
> With huge investment needed in the urban transport sector which the Centre
> cannot meet from traditional budgetary sources, innovative financing
> mechanisms were being explored, an official said. Even public private
> partnership projects could only partially meet the funding needs, he added.
> The resources mobilised from the new surcharge and taxes will be pooled in
> a dedicated national urban transport fund to meet the growing needs of
> urban transport.
> The working group also suggested dedicated funds at the state and city
> level through resources like land monetisation, betterment levy, land value
> tax and hike in property tax. It also recommended imposing congestion tax,
> a cess on sales tax and hike in parking charges to generate resources for
> the fund.
> ********************
> --
> Pooja Sanghani (Ms.) | Program Officer, Our Cities Ourselves
> Institute for Transportation & Development Policy
> 301, Paritosh, near Darpana Academy, Usmanpura, Ahmedabad, India
> Office +91 79 40069227 | Mobile +91 9879897959 | www.itdp.org
>
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-- 
Cornie Huizenga
Joint Convener
Partnership on Sustainable, Low Carbon Transport
Mobile: +86 13901949332
cornie.huizenga at slocatpartnership.org
www.slocat.net