Craft taxes to improve fuel economy of cars; CSE to FM

New Delhi, Feb 15 (UNI) Centre for Science and Environment today said the 2007-08 union budget must address the linkage between vehicles and energy insecurity.

Saying the country was in the grip of an impending energy crisis because it was consuming more oil than ever before and the growing transport sector was guzzling a lot of this oil, a new CSE study on fuel economy in the transport sector suggested a range of measures which the Union budget could introduce to tide over the crisis.

''State-sponsored car boom, without any efforts towards making cars more fuel-efficient, is inciting oil guzzling that the country cannot afford.'' Based on the findings of the study released here, CSE proposed a set of immediate tax correction to union Finance Minister P Chidambaram to deal with the challenges of motorisation, pollution and energy insecurity.

CSE's missive to Mr Chidambaram warned that India could see a worsening of the energy crisis if urgent tax corrections in the forthcoming union budget were not introduced to avert oil guzzling, dieselisation and more pollution ''It is unfortunate that the oil price shock of last year has receded so fast from public memory. There is no policy urgency to address deepening of energy insecurity due to rising number of cars supported by tax incentives,'' CSE Associate Director Anumita Roychoudhury and leader of the study team said.

Finance ministry should not buckle down under pressure from the car industry for more tax cuts or let them expand their polluting diesel car fleet, she opined.

''Union budget must address the linkage between vehicles and energy insecurity.'' The transport sector was the single biggest user of oil and oil products, using up around 30 per cent of the total consumption in the country, she added.

''Almost all the petrol used in the country is consumed by private vehicles, which also accounts for consumption of 62 per cent of the diesel in the transport sector. More and more vehicle manufacturers are introducing diesel variants.'' ''If the numbers and usage of cars grow unchecked and the government fails to introduce fuel economy standards to make them more fuel-efficient, India will hurtle towards a serious energy crisis.'' MORE UNI IP SRB DS1632