Discourage sale of BMWs, Audis, says Jairam

NEW DELHI - Environment and Forests Minister Jairam Ramesh Friday called for corrections in the fiscal policy to discourage luxurious cars like BMW and Audi in the country as they were a major source of greenhouse gases.

Speaking at a workshop on ‘Promoting Low Carbon Transport in India’ here, Ramesh said there was no need to subsidise diesel as it only helped the sale of luxurious cars in the country.

“We don’t need subsidy in diesel but LPG as subsidy on diesel is only helping BMW, Audi and other heavy carbon SUVs. We should discourage that… rather we need to provide subsidy on LPG to help the farmers,” he said.

He said the country needed to correct the fiscal policy to discourage sale of luxurious cars.

The environment minister also ruled out use of ethanol and electricity as future source of fuel to run vehicles.

“We can’t derive energy from fields as there is serious issue of food security in future. Even electricity doesn’t come from heaven and lots of resources are used to generate electricity,” he added.