FM's green budget cheers enviornmentalists

CLEAN AND GREEN: The FM has advocated the need to promote clean technologies.

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New Delhi: Climate change has dominated headlines world over in the last one year, and the Finance Minister has taken note. In a please all budget, the FM also showered some green initiatives that has the environmentalists rejoicing.

FM P Chidambaram said, "I'd announced that for the climate change issue the government should appoint an expert committee, to study the impact of climate change in India and identify the measures that we may have to take in the future."

Director-General TERI, Dr R K Pachauri was all praises for the FM as he said, "I think he's outlined the concept, he's also talked about the institutional structure which is absolutely perfect, because unless you have a regular institutional structure, it's not likely to receive the kind of attention it deserves."

Other green initiatives taken by the FM are :

• A key move has been to bring down excise duty on hybrid cars and green vehicles from 24 per cent to 16 per cent. Currently Mahindra & Mahindra, Honda have hybrid offerings, but this move is expected to open up the market.
• The FM has also cut duty on small cars, two and three-wheelers from 16 per cent to 12 per cent.
• In a bid to encourage more public transport, commercial vehicles, too, have been brought under tax reduction benefit.
• The excise duty on buses has been reduced to 12 per cent.
• Duty on bus chassis has been cut by 4 per cent.

The FM has also advocated the need to promote clean technologies and a review of fuel emission and efficiency regulations is also on the cards. But while duties on big cars are still a high 24 per cent, what has environmentalists are upset about is FM's announcement of reducing excise duty on small cars.

Assistant Director CSE, Anumita RoyChaudhary said, " Now by reducing the taxes on cars, what is essentially done is to give that further philip to motorisation, which we are now trying to deal with by improving public transport."

Nearly 400 million carbon credits will be generated from the Rs 70,000 crore new projects initiated in the budget, but environmentalists feel there is no clarification on how income generated by companies from carbon credits will be taxed.