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A four-member committee formed by the National Green Tribunal has recommended Rs 171.34 crore fine on German auto major Volkswagen as “health damages” for causing air pollution in Delhi due to excess nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions.
The expert committee in its report has estimated that Volkswagen cars released approximately 48.678 tonnes of NOx in 2016 in the national capital. “Estimated cost of heath damage due to additional NOx emissions from the Volkswagen group vehicles is approximately Rs 171.34 crore using a metro city i.e Delhi as a base. The value may be considered conservative due to lack of methodologies for calculating the overall impact of nitrogen oxide on environment in India and hence only health damages are valued.
“Further the valuation is for Delhi city considering that the value of NOx is 435 tonnes is released in the city. This is assumed because lack of data on the geographical locations and plying regions of Volkwagen vehicles which have caused the damage and for all the years which have been considered for damage,” the committee has said in its report. Nitrogen oxide is a smog-forming pollutant linked to heart and lung disease.
The panel calculated the morbidity by using the estimates of the cost of treatment and related expenses under the heading of cost of illness and the disability-adjusted life years (DALY) from the WHO database. “The valuation is based on per capita income of the individuals in the city. For mortality, value of statistical life is used for monetary estimation,” it said. The penalty was determined on the basis of the 3.27 lakh Volkswagen cars in India that had deceit software installed.
“The total health damage due to air pollution in city is around Rs 157.80 crore. Further, if this cost was to be charged bin 2018, an average inflation of 4.2 per cent is to be applied for two years (after 2016), which comes out to be Rs 171.34 crore,” the committee said in its report. The green panel had earlier said the use of ‘cheat device’ by Volkswagen in diesel cars in India leads to inference of environmental damage and asked the German car maker to deposit an interim amount of Rs 100 crore with the Central Pollution Control Board.
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