Green levy a headache, says toll company

The Hindu

The Supreme Court had blamed the pollution in the Capital on polluting commercial vehicles driving through Delhi to skip a higher toll tax charged on alternative routes. File photo

Firm threatens to quit, says court has unfairly imposed a ‘humongous’ obligation on it to collect environment tax

The continued levy of Environment Compensatory Charge (ECC) at entry points to Delhi to cut pollution is facing a roadblock with one of the toll companies threatening to quit rather than go through the “headache” of collecting the money.

Moments after a three-judge bench led by Chief Justice of India H.L. Dattu threatened contempt action against the toll companies if they failed to comply with its October 12 order to collect ECC from commercial traffic entering the National Capital, the hearing, at the Supreme Court on Monday, witnessed a sudden turnaround when one of the companies, SMYR Consortium LLP, blamed the apex court for not following the “absolute minimum requirement of fairness and principles of natural justice”. Senior advocate Shyam Divan, appearing for the company, challenged the jurisdiction of the apex court to impose the “humongous” obligation of collecting the ECC on the toll companies without even giving them a prior opportunity to be heard. Mr. Divan, who argued for over an hour and well into the lunch break, said there is “no question of contempt at all”. “This court had no jurisdiction to impose such obligations on me without following the basic tenets of fairness and principles of natural justice by hearing me first. Let a fresh tender be called. Let someone else do this. I don't want this headache. I don't want this Damocles sword hanging over my head through the entire period of my contract,” Mr. Divan argued.

He submitted that company's “intricate” contract with the Municipal Corporation of Delhi did not originally contain any clause to collect ECC. He said he cannot afford now to bear the costs and personnel involved in collecting the ECC. Added to that, he said there is a risk of pilferage by company personnel of money collected as ECC, which is “government money”. Again, he said that out of 120 entry points to Delhi, many do not even have electricity. “This is extremely excessive and improper. We feel there was no application of mind to the intricacy of the business contract... I am risking far too much. Allow me to go,” Mr. Divan said.

Senior advocate Gopal Subramanium, for another toll contractor, is yet to argue. The next hearing is on November 27.

At the beginning, Chief Justice Dattu had sternly made it clear that the “Supreme Court is not going to change a word of our order”. This observation came after the court learnt that despite its order, no ECC was collected between November 1 and 6 and SMYR Consortium LLP, which has been levying toll on behalf of MCD, is coming out with all “sort of submissions”.

On October 12, the apex court directed that ECC, between Rs. 700 to Rs. 1300, would be charged for a period of four months starting from November 1, 2015 to February 29, 2016 on an experimental basis.

The court had blamed the pollution in the Capital on polluting commercial vehicles driving through Delhi to skip a higher toll tax charged on alternative routes.

The court had blamed the pollution in the Capital on polluting commercial vehicles driving through Delhi