"Government of India is in the final stages of finalizing norms for fuel efficiency standards for automobile industry in India. According to the Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh, transport industry contributes nearly 10-15 percent of the Total Greenhouse Gas emissions in India. New emission standards will considerably put certain amount of restrictions on the same. Apart from this, the government is also contemplating on reducing duty structure on import of hybrid cars and electric cars in India.

"We are right now engaged in finalising administrative formalities on how these standards has to be notified either through the Energy Conservation Act or the Motor Vehicles Act," stated Ramesh at the inaugural session of the two-day 4th Environment Friendly Vehicles (EFV) conference.

If the new norms are introduced it will be mandatory for auto manufacturers to sell vehicles with energy-efficiency tags. Currently, it is mandatory for them to declared fuel-efficiency as per the ARAI ratings. New CO2 emission norms in India are also coming into effect from April 2010 starting from 11 cities in the country. These norms will gradually be introduced pan India in a structured manner."

Source:cartradeindia