According to official data, the Delhi government has spent just 21 percent of Rs 1,298 crore collected from diesel-guzzling truck drivers entering the capital over the last six years as an environment compensation charge.
The South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC), in accordance with the Supreme Court’s directives, collects the cess from the Transport Department and deposits it.
According to Amit Gupta’s reply to an RTI request, only Rs 281.5 million of Rs 1,298 crore collected for “environment cess” has been used by the city government since November 20, 2015.
The maximum fund, Rs 271 crore, was used in the fiscal year 2018-19. The Delhi-Meerut Regional Rapid Transit System Project (RRTS) was funded by the National Capital Region Transport Corporation (NCRTC) and the city government.
The NCRTC, a joint venture by the Centre and the governments in Delhi, Haryana and Rajasthan for the implementation of the RRTS project throughout the National Capital Region, is a joint venture.
RTI replies that the government released Rs. 93 lakh to SDMC in 2016-17 for “pre-tendering incidental costs of RFID” project, which involved the installation of radio frequency identification devices at Delhi’s borderpoints for collecting toll and environmental cess.
It also approved Rs 15 crore to fund a pilot project that used Hydrogen-enriched CNG in 50 state buses in 2018-19, 2019-20 to reduce emissions and improve fuel economy. Since then, the project has been put on hold.
PTI reported last month that the government spent Rs 527 Crore on green activities, based on Rs 547 crore collected from the Air Ambience Fund.
The Air Ambience Fund was established in 2008 and is collected by the Department of Trade and Taxes. 25 paise are earned from each litre of diesel sold in Delhi.
According to the government the fund has been used for subsidy for battery-operated vehicles and e-rickshaws. It also maintains the Delhi Secretariat’s Bio-gas Plant. It also operates online monitoring stations. The government says the fund has been used to study real-time source apportionment.
(Only headline and photo of this report might have been reworked slightly by Business Standard staff; the rest is auto-generated from syndicated feeds.
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