New Delhi:Warning that theunchecked growth of cars are contributing heavily towards energy andenvironment insecurity, Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) today (Feb15,2007) said Indiamust increase taxes on all cars.

"Indiais in the grip of an impending energy crisis as we are consuming more oil thanever before and the growing transport sector is guzzling a lot of this,"said a new CSE study on fuel economy in the transport sector.

The report, released Thursday here, said the 2007-08 unionbudget must address this linkage between vehicles and energyinsecurity

The report underlines that private vehicles account for 62percent of diesel consumption in the transport sector. More and more vehiclemanufacturers are introducing diesel variants.

The transport sector is the single biggest user of oil andoil products using up around 30 percent of the total consumption in thecountry.

"If the numbers and usage of cars grow unchecked andthe government fails to introduce fuel economy standards to make them morefuel-efficient, Indiawill hurtle towards a serious energy crisis," said the report, adding thatsince 2001, the union budget has lowered taxes on cars successively resultingin a phenomenal increase in car numbers.

Anumita Roychoudhury, associate director, CSE and the teamleader of the study, said industry estimates suggest that car sales crossed theone million mark in just 11 months in 2006.

"With economic growth there has been a steady shifttowards bigger cars. While the share of the smallest cars with 800 cc enginehave dropped from 21 percent in 2001 to 11 percent in 2004, the sales ofmid-size cars has grown from 12 percent in 2001-02 to 17 percent in 2004-05.The share of bigger cars is also increasing steadily," she said.

The report suggests that with this growing number, thepollution is increasing phenomenally.

"Carmakers make tall claims about the fuel efficiencyof their products, but there is almost no official data or a certificationsystem to back them. While a large number of countries have begun to enforcefuel economy standards for vehicles, India is shying away," itstresses.

The report suggests Finance Minister P. Chidambaram shouldenforce mandatory fuel economy standards. "Fiscal policies targeted atenergy efficiency should be linked to fuel economy of vehicles and promotion ofadvanced technologies like hybrid electric vehicles.

"Raise taxes on all cars, but maintain a differentialin favour of small cars and fuel-efficient vehicles. Our regulations will haveto push the industry to produce the most fuel and emissions-efficientvehicles," it added.

The study emphasises that India should discourage diesel carswithout efficiency and clean emissions standards. The car industry is pushingdiesel cars in the name of fuel-efficiency, but these cars are several timesmore polluting than petrol cars.

India'smost popular small diesel car is more than 20 to 30 percent less fuel-efficientand 50 percent more polluting than its counterparts in Europe.

The study further adds that while cess should be imposed ondiesel cars, incentives must be there for efficient public transport system.

"We must introduce fuel economy standards and mandate aroadmap for the future. Many countries, including China, have introduced suchmeasures primarily for energy and environmental security," Roychoudhurysaid.