But Trans-Tax will be Great !

Context :

Green Tax coming for older Vehicles / Business Line / 26 Jan 2021

Extract :

Ø The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has given its nod to a proposal to levy a Green Tax at 10-25 per cent for,

# commercial vehicles that are over eight years old and

# personal vehicles of over 15 years.

Ø Simply put, cabs and trucks used for commercial purposes will have to pay a higher tax after eight years.

Ø According to an official statement, Nitin Gadkari, Minister for Road Transport and Highways, has also approved the policy of de-registration and scrapping of vehicles that are over 15 years old owned by government departments and public sector undertakings. Once notified, it will come into effect from April 1, 2022.

Ø Transport vehicles older than eight years could be charged the Green Tax at the time of renewal of fitness certificate, at 10-25 per cent of the road tax, and personal vehicles will face the levy at the time of renewal of registration certification after 15 years, the statement said, adding that depending on fuel (petrol/diesel) and type of vehicle, the tax will be levied.

Ø The taxation regime favours non-diesel, non-petrol vehicles.

Ø For instance, vehicles like ‘strong hybrids’ (that can run fully on electric, or full internal combustion engine or a combination), electric vehicles and alternative fuels like CNG, ethanol, LPG will be exempted.

Ø Vehicles used in farming, such as tractors, harvesters and tillers, and public transport vehicles, such as city buses, will be charged a lower Green Tax, while a higher levy (50 per cent of road tax) is proposed for vehicles being registered in highly polluted cities, said the release.

Ø The revenue collected from this tax will have to be sequestered in a separate account and used for tackling pollution, and for States to set up state-of-art facilities for emission monitoring.

Ø “The industry is not clear on the proposal yet, as there are points like ‘higher Green Tax (50 per cent of road tax) for vehicles being registered in highly polluted cities’. So, we need to get the details of what the definition of ‘highly polluted cities’ is,” an auto industry tax, said SP Singh, Senior Fellow, Indian Foundation of Transport Research and Training. [ sps@iftrt.org ]

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Dear Shri Gadkariji,

Congratulations for proposing GREEN TAX , based upon:

Ø Type of transport, viz: Private or Public

Ø Use of transport, viz: Carrying Passenger/ Carrying Goods ( commercial ) / Agriculture

Ø Type of Fuel - Energy, viz: Highly Polluting ( Petrol – Diesel ) / Non Polluting ( CNG-LPG-Ethanol-Electric )

Ø Where Used , viz: In highly polluted cities / Rural Areas – Open Highways

Ø Age of Vehicle , viz: Less than 8-15 years / More than 8-15 years

Green Tax is Good, but TRANS-TAX ( proposed in my following email ) would be GREAT

Ø Transport : an Integrated Logistic Plan ?...................[ 20 Nov 2018 ]

In this email I urge you to look up the details of my proposal under following paragraphs :

Ø Problem Statement

Ø Guiding Principles / Goals of Integrated Logistics Plan

Ø Road-Map to achieve these objectives

Ø Logic for determining “ Harm Quotient "

Ø Illustration of the Computation of “ Harm Quotient “

Ø “Tran-Score is total of “ Harm Quotients “ of various factors

Ø Some more examples of calculation of “ Tran-Score “

Ø Technology Platform

# NaviC : the Navigator

# Internet of Vehicles [ 04 Mar 2017 ]

# A New Way to E-Way ? [ 15 July 2017 ]

Ø How will this system work ?

Ø Linkage of Tran-Score with amount of “ Trans–Tax “ payable

Ø How else can a NaviC based “ Vehicle tracking – Taxing system “ benefit citizens ?

Ø Time-Frame for implementation of this proposal

Ø Which country is most likely to implement this first ?

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COMPARE & CONTRAST

Parameter	My Proposal ( 20 Nov 2018 )	Govt Proposal ( 26 Jan 2021 )
Private transport / Polluting transport	Minimize	Minimize
Public transport / Non-polluting transport	Maximize	Maximize
Land-based transport / “Within City “transport / “Privately Owned transport	Discourage	Discourage
Air Air-based transport / Water based transport / “Public owned “Transport / Shared transport / Night – time transport	Encourage	No explicit / definitive position
Taxation	Trans-Tax ( for ALL vehicles ) From Birth to Death ( Scrappage )	Green Tax ( but only for OLD vehicles ) After 8 / 15 years of life
When / How often levied ?	Every Day / Every Hour ( 24 x 7 )	Commercial Vehicles > At time of renewal of Fitness Certificate Private Vehicle > At time of Renewal of Registration Certificate
Tax at what rate ?	1 Based on following SLABS of Trans-Scores computed by NaviC for a given vehicle : 2 ------------------------------------------- SLAB > % Trans-Tax -------------------------------------------- 3 4 01 – 200 > 150 % ( of the BASE SLAB tax ) · 201 – 300 > 200 % · 301 - 400 > 250 % · 401 - 500 > 300 % ( Base Slab = Current Road Tax ) ---------------------------------------------- Based on “Harm Quotient “ computed by software for each and every vehicle – every hour of its life	10 % - 25 % - 50 % Of the current Road Tax
System	Ø NaviC satellite & Vehicle-embedded Sensors/Fastag based Ø Totally Automatic tax deduction Ø Tax deducted from Fastag installed in each and every vehicle as it leaves factory Absolutely NO HUMAN INTERVENTION ! Ø Will replace all existing Road-taxes on vehicles. No other tax Ø Could consider to drop GST too !	Ø Totally Manual / Slow Ø Needing enormous amount of tracking of a number of parameter of each vehicle , every day, which is humanly impossible Ø Susceptible for corruption Ø Huge burden of implementation on part of State RTOs / Police Depts Ø Enormous burden of compliance for vehicle-owners
Utilization of Green Tax	TRANS-TAX will be uniform throughout India but credited to the State in which vehicle is, at each hour of its life	Ø The revenue collected from this tax will have to be sequestered in a separate account and used for tackling pollution, and for States to set up state-of-art facilities for emission monitoring.
Motivating Factor for Vehicle Owners	To lower TRANS-TAX liability, people will opt for vehicles / driving conditions which generate low TRANSCORE, most of time. This will motivate people to go for EVs / Bicycles and use at non-peak hours	To avoid paying GREEN TAX, only thing owners will do is to sell vehicles to scrap-dealers, but only after 8 / 15 years
Uniformity	Same Trans-Tax across entire country	Vehicle taxes differ across States
Reduction in Air Pollution	Dramatic reduction within ONE YEAR	Very slow rate of reduction
Effect on Manufacturers	Great urgency to phase-out polluting Petrol-Diesel vehicles and switch over to EVs – Hybrids –CNG – LPG – Ethanol	Tendency to continue with ICE vehicles to safeguard legacy investments in plant/machinery

Dear Shri Gadkariji,

While welcoming this ( proposed introduction of GREEN TAX ), I urge you to “ Go Great “ !

With regards,

Hemen Parekh / hcp@RecruitGuru.com / 27 Jan 2021

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COMMENTS :

Davidoff, Thomas [ thomas.davidoff@sauder.ubc.ca ]

Director, UBC Centre for Urban Economics and Real Estate

Associate Professor, Strategy and Business Economics Division

Hemen

Thank you for this note. What you propose sounds like an integrated Pigouvian approach to transport pricing, which I agree would be great.

Regards,

Tom

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Dear Mr. Parekh,

Thanks for your note, and your interest in our group’s research.

As your proposal falls into the broader philosophy of dis-incentivizing private transport, or more accurately incentivizing the use of public transport, the ideas outlined in your blog are certainly worth exploring.

Of course, this might serve as one of “ a basket of options ” available to us to tackle this rather complex issue.

As you correctly surmise, much of it depends on the political climate of each region, and the willingness of the citizenry to undergo some level of immediate hardship in service of longer-term goals.

A multifaceted and flexible approach is therefore the need of the hour.

With regards,

Gourab / Gourab Ghoshal [http://gghoshal.pas.rochester.edu/ ]

Assistant Professor [Physics, Computer Science and Mathematics ]

University of Rochester

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BMW, Ford back development of vehicle 'birth certificates' built on the blockchain

BMW, Ford, and major technology companies have indicated their support for a new blockchain project to assign "birth certificates" to vehicles.

Announced on Tuesday, the initiative is focused on developing technologies able to track a car from its manufacture and beyond, including when the vehicle has changed hands, its maintenance history, and records of mileage and any past damage.

Blockchain technologies are touted as a way to create a tamper-proof record of a car's history.

MOBI intends to create a system that will pull together records from multiple sources to create a true representation of a vehicle's condition.

"Vehicle registration on [the] blockchain allows formerly disconnected vehicle registration systems between states and countries to connect using a secure, shared, and trusted ledger," the company says

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