Driving Sport Utility Vehicles on Indian roads criminal: Jairam Ramesh

New Delhi : Minister of Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh on Friday criticised the use of fuel-inefficient Sport Utility Vehicles (SUVs) on Indian roads by calling their use ‘criminal’.

“The use of vehicles like SUVs and BMW in countries like India is criminal,” he said, in a scathing attack on the use of large vehicles and SUVs.

The minister emphasised on the need to have a three task approach to reduce Green House Gas (GHG) emission suggesting that the luxurious growth of large size vehicles and SUVs is a criminal proposition.

At the UN workshop on low-carbon transport in India, Jairam Ramesh called for minimum fuel efficiency standards and said his country should overhaul its subsidy system for diesel, after deregulating petrol prices in June.

“We have reformed policy as far as petrol is concerned. We are yet to reform as far as the net effect of diesel subsidy is concerned,” he said.

In his inaugural speech at a workshop on ?Promoting Low-carbon Transport in India? here he said, ?We should carry three tasks namely mandatory fuel economic standard, improvement in quality of fuel and fiscal policy regime. The immediate task ahead at us is to have Mandatory Fuel Economic Standards.

“We have now finalised and will be notified under the Energy conservation Act and not under Motor Vehicle Act. The standards are all ready with technical work and by end of this year we should have voluntary mandatory standard. This will be KMPL standard route which will depend on weight of the car, size of the engine etc,” he added.

?We are moving into Bharat stage III for two wheelers & Bharat Stage IV for four wheelers. No longer can vehicle manufacturers argue of poor fuel not to move into mandatory standard regime,? a PIB release quoted him as saying.

The subsidies which are given for fossil fuels should be for farmers, LPG etc which is used by big vehicles. He suggested implementing fiscal policy regime that discourage the use of heavy cars and SUVs particularly and put penalty use of these vehicles.

Giving details of GHG emission of various sectors the Minister said the transportation sector accounts for 7? per cent of our GHG emissions, 38 per cent is electricity, 23 per cent is industry, 17 per cent is agriculture and 7? per cent emission is from residential sector.

He said the growth of cars will not allow curbing emission and it will be doubled by 2025 as the transport sector is growing at alarming rate.