South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) contractor for toll tax began collecting ECC as per the Supreme Court order, after a delay of six days, at 124 entry points of the city on the intervening night of November 6-7.
“We faced a lot of problems, and traffic jams as well as long queues complicated the job of collecting Economic Compensation Charge (ECC) at the borders of Delhi,” a director of the contractor SMYR Consortium said, adding they were not authorised to speak to media on the details of the amount collected as green tax.
“We will provide details of number of vehicles that paid ECC on the first night to the SDMC which is entrusted to collect toll tax and the green tax on behalf of the three municipal corporations in Delhi,” he said.
SMYR Consortium which had earlier refused to collect ECC, citing “practical problems” involved in it, yesterday informed SDMC it will begin collection of the green tax from midnight.
Collection of ECC of Rs 1,300 from trucks and Rs 700 from smaller commercial vehicles was scheduled to begin from November 1 on the order of the Supreme Court.
The apex court in its order on October 12 had directed the Delhi government and SDMC to charge ECC from trucks and other smaller commercial vehicles entering the city from November 1, in a bid to check growing pollution in the national capital.
The court had directed imposition of ECC on an experimental basis for a four-month period till February 29.
However, the contractor had refused to collect the green tax citing several “practical problems” and had given a legal notice to the SDMC seeking clarification of 11 issues including fall in toll tax revenue due to diversion of vehicles not entering Delhi to avoid paying ECC.
The issue was resolved when the SC-appointed Environment Pollution Control Authority (ECPA) in consultation with Delhi Government and SDMC officials clarified the issues raised by SMYR Consortium after which it agreed to start collecting ECC from midnight last.
However, confusion over the imposition of ECC led to chaos at the borders of Delhi with truck drivers heckling the staff of toll tax collection booths.
