February 16, 2006: Worried over the high levels of energy insecurity, the Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) has knocked at the government door urging the powers that be to hike taxes on all cars.

Warning that the unchecked growth of cars are contributing heavily towards energy and environment insecurity, the CSE has said that India is in the grip of an impending energy crisis as we are consuming more oil than ever before and the growing transport sector is guzzling a lot of this,' said a new CSE study on fuel economy in the transport sector.

A report by the CSE has said the 2007-08 union budget must address this 'linkage between vehicles and energy insecurity'. Stressing on the point that private vehicles account for 62 per cent of diesel consumption in the transport sector, it said that more and more vehicle manufacturers are introducing diesel variants. With the transport sector being the single largest user of oil and oil products, using up around 30 percent of the total consumption in the country, the CSE has in fact sounded an alert.

The report has sad that if the number 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.

Pointing out that industry estimates suggest that car sales crossed the one million mark in just 11 months in 2006, it said that while the share of the smallest cars with 800 cc engine have dropped from 21 percent in 2001 to 11 percent in 2004, the sales of mid-size cars has grown from 12 percent in 2001-02 to 17 percent in 2004-05. With this growing number, the pollution is increasing phenomenally, it added.

Urging Finance Minister P Chidambaram to bring in mandatory fuel economy standards, the report pointed out that fiscal policies targeted at energy efficiency should be linked to fuel economy of vehicles and promotion of advanced technologies like hybrid electric vehicles. The report also said that India should discourage diesel cars without efficiency and clean emissions standards.